An American military judge declared valid the negotiated sentence agreement for Khalid Cheikh Mohammed, considered the “mastermind” of the September 11, 2001 attacks, a decision revoked in early August by the Pentagon after the strong emotion aroused among many relatives of nearly 3,000 victims, an American official said Thursday.
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“ The military judge ruled that the pre-procedure agreements for the three accused are admissible and applicable “, explained to AFP an American official, on condition of anonymity. This agreement, validated on Wednesday by the judge, according to the same source, should prevent these three men detained on the American military base at Guantanamocapital punishment. It was not immediately clear whether prosecutors would appeal the decision.
Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, Walid bin Attash and Mustafa al-Hawsawi, are accused of terrorism and the murder of nearly 3,000 people in the attacks on United States soil, one of the most traumatic episodes in the country’s history.
In exchange for a sentence of life imprisonment – according to American media – Khalid Cheikh Mohammed, who had boasted to investigators of having imagined and organized the deadliest attacks in history, avoids, thanks to this agreement, a trial where he would face the death penalty. However, this decision, announced at the end of July, shocked many relatives of the victims and sparked virulent criticism in the Republican camp, in a country in the middle of the presidential campaign.
Men tortured and never judged
“ With immediate effect, in the exercise of my authority, I thus revoke the three agreements » of negotiated sentence, explained the American Minister of Defense, Lloyd Austin, in a brief note, estimating that “ responsibility for such a decision » should come back to him. “ The victims’ families, members of our armed forces, and Americans deserve to see military commission trials held in this case “, declared the head of the Pentagon a few days later during a press conference.
The three men were never tried, with proceedings to bring them to trial bogged down by the question of whether the torture they suffered in secret CIA prisons tainted the evidence against them. Most people know Khalid Sheikh Mohammed from the photo taken of him the night he was captured in 2003, with tousled hair and bushy mustache, dressed in white pajamas.
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