The United States' Department of Defense announced Wednesday that it has reached a plea deal with three defendants related to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in 2001.
The deal was made with the attacks' alleged mastermind Khalid Shaikh Mohammad, and his accomplices Walid Muhammad Salih Mubarak bin 'Attash, and Mustafa Ahmed Adam al Hawsawi, at Guantanamo Bay.
The trio have been charged together, but details on the plea deal was not immediately released by the Defense Department. However, the New York Times reported that the deal included the elimination of the death penalty.
“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 offenses, including the murder of the 2,976 people listed in the charge sheet,” a letter obtained by the outlet said.
Mohammad has been accused of being the mastermind behind the attack, and prosecutors allege that he presented the idea of hijacking the planes and flying them into the towers to Osama bin Laden in 1996. He also allegedly helped train some of the hijackers.
Hawsawi has been accused of helping the hijackers with finances and travel arrangements related to the attack, while Attash is accused of providing them with combat training.
The plea deal comes years after the men were arrested and imprisoned at Guantanamo Bay. Negotiators initially began discussing a plea deal that would remove the death penalty in March of 2022, but it was stalled in September after the Biden administration decided not to weigh in on improving their living conditions.
Some of the conditions the men sought were promises that they would not be held in solitary confinement, continue to have access to their lawyers, and more contact with their families.
Two other men are also detained at Guantanamo Bay on charges related to the 9/11 attack in New York City. But one man has been found incompetent to stand trial due to mental illness. The other is being tried separately and is the nephew of Mohammad.
