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A courtroom sketch by artist Janet Hamlin and reviewed by the U.S. military shows Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, center, and co-defendant Walid Bin Attash, left, during a pretrial conference at the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, Monday, Dec. 8, 2008. Mohammed is accused of being the mastermind of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. His trial date has been repeatedly postponed. He is being held indefinitely at Guantanamo.
Janet Hamlin | Billiards | AP
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin on Friday withdrew a controversial plea deal for three suspects accused of planning the 9/11 attacks.
“Today, Secretary Austin signed a memorandum preserving specific authority to enter into pretrial agreements with defendants in the 9/11 military commissions cases,” the Department of Defense said in a press release. “In addition, the Secretary, as the top convener, rescinded the pretrial agreements entered into in those cases.”
Austin announced the move in a memo to Armed Services Committee Convener Susan Escallier, who helped negotiate the deal.
Austin stated in the letter: “Effective immediately, I hereby revoke your authority to enter into a pretrial agreement in the above case and reserve such authority for myself,” and Escalier withdrew from the case.
The defence secretary said he made the decision “taking into account the importance of the plea agreement”, adding that “the responsibility for this decision should be borne by me”.
Officials said on Wednesday that Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, Walid Mohammed Saleh Mubarak bin Atash and Mustafa Ahmed Adam Al-Hasawi had reached a plea deal. The three were expected to plead guilty to lesser charges and avoid the death penalty, but the terms of the rescission agreement remain unknown.
The plea agreement was negotiated between the defendants, their attorneys and Escalier. Officials previously said the defendants were scheduled to appear in a hearing next week at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
Mohammed is accused of being the mastermind of the 9/11 attacks, which killed 2,977 people.
A spokesman for the White House National Security Council declined to comment and referred NBC News to the Department of Defense, which declines to comment beyond the release.
The plea deal was criticized by the victims’ families and members of Congress.
Austin’s announcement came after the Republican-led House Oversight Committee said Friday it would launch an investigation into the White House’s role in the plea deal.
Likewise, House Armed Services Committee Chairman Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Ala., said in a letter to Austin that he was “deeply shocked and outraged” by the news of the plea deal.
Former Attorney General Eric Holder, who served in the Obama administration, sharply criticized the deal in a statement Thursday.
“The people responsible for crafting this terrible deal did the best they could,” Holder told NBC News. “They were beaten badly by political hacks and people who had lost faith in our justice system.”
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