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full screen Workers gather the day after the attacks on the World Trader Center in New York, September 11, 2001. File photo. Photo: Amy Sancetta/AP/TT
The man accused of masterminding the 9/11 attacks in 2001 has agreed to plead guilty following a plea deal with the United States, the US Department of Defense said.
Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and two accomplices are expected to plead guilty at the Guantanamo Bay military commission in Cuba as soon as next week.
The US plea agreement with the men comes more than 16 years after the prosecution of them began, and more than 20 years after terrorists crashed commercial airliners into buildings in attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people.
Officials at the defense headquarters, the Pentagon, are tight-lipped about the terms of the agreement. But according to the New York Times, citing anonymous Pentagon officials, the conditions include that the accused men avoid the risk of the death penalty.