Three men accused of plotting the 9/11 attack, including mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammad, have reached a plea deal with the US.
According to CNBC News, the Pentagon (headquarters of the U.S. Department of Defence) said on Wednesday, July 31, that three men, Khalid Sheikh Mohammad, Walid bin Attash, and Mustafa al-Hawsawi, charged with plotting the September 11, 2001 terror attack, have agreed to plead guilty in the military commission process.
The terms of the deal are not disclosed yet, but it is reported that the accused men will plead guilty in exchange for a life sentence instead of the death penalty.
As per a New York Times report, the chief prosecutor in the case, Rear Admiral Aaron Rugh, in a letter to the 9/11 victim family members wrote, “In exchange for the removal of the death penalty as a possible punishment, these three accused have agreed to plead guilty to all of the charged offences, including the murder of the 2,976 people listed in the charge sheet.”
Moreover, Karen Greenberg, the director of the Centre on National Security at the Fordham University School of Law, told Al Jazeera, “It means a lot. It means that this trial, which has been put off for 12 years, will not happen.”
It is worth knowing that around 3,000 people were killed in the 9/11 attack when the al-Qaeda group hijacked four airlines in the US and flew two into the World Trade Centre in New York City and a third into the Pentagon building.
The fourth plane was crashed near Shanksville, Pennsylvania.
