A military appeals court has upheld a plea deal allowing three men accused of orchestrating the 9/11 attacks to avoid the death penalty, a decision that has left victims’ families devastated and angry, the New York Post reported.
The ruling ends a five-month legal battle but deepens frustration over the pursuit of justice for the worst terrorist attack in US history.
Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, Walid Bin Attash, and Mustafa al-Hawsawi, held at Guantanamo Bay since 2003, struck a deal to plead guilty to war crimes in exchange for life imprisonment instead of the death penalty.
Despite initial intervention by defence secretary Lloyd Austin to revoke the deal, the court ruled on Monday that Austin lacked authority to overturn it, declaring the agreements “valid and enforceable.”
“This plea deal is atrocious. It’s salt added to the wound,” said retired FDNY lieutenant Jim McCaffrey, whose brother-in-law, Battalion Chief Orio Palmer, died after reaching the 78th floor of the South Tower. “If anybody deserves the death penalty, these terrorists do.”
The plea agreements, signed by Pentagon official Susan K Escallier, have been criticised for bypassing victims’ families. Sally Regenhard, who lost her firefighter son Christian in the attacks, expressed outrage: “These people should have been tried at the scene of the crime in Manhattan federal court, just blocks from Ground Zero.”
The original allegations came to light in July when reports revealed the deal, prompting widespread backlash. Austin initially revoked the agreements, giving families a glimmer of hope, but the appeals court rejected his authority to intervene.
Maureen Santora, whose firefighter son Christian also died on 9/11, condemned the decision. “Taking the death penalty off the table is deeply disturbing and unjust. These terrorists were responsible for killing nearly 3,000 people. They even told us at Guantanamo Bay, ‘We’d do it again,'”he was quoted as saying by the New York Post.
Critics have also linked the case to broader concerns over clemency under President Biden. Retired NYPD officer Jim Smith told the New York Post, “This is part of Biden’s MO. He’s released murderers and rapists. The whole country should feel let down.”
The outcome marks another setback in the decades-long effort to secure justice for the nearly 3,000 lives lost in the 9/11 attacks.
