WASHINGTON DC (WSAU) – Pentagon and FBI officials informed families of 9/11 victims that one of the architects of the attacks and his coconspirators could avoid the death penalty thanks to a plea deal.
According to The Daily Caller, for the past 20 years, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and the other four suspects in the attacks have been detained at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba. The COVID-19 epidemic caused a delay in the military jury selection that was supposed to start in January 2021. Due to staff changes, plea deals, and presidential administrations’ hesitation, including the Biden administration, the trial has been repeatedly postponed ever since.
Mohammed confessed to being the main planner of the 9/11 attacks back in 2007. However, back in 2008, the United States Supreme Court questioned the methods used to obtain the confession due to allegations of severe torture methods being used against Mohammed.
‘The Office of the Chief Prosecutor has been negotiating and is considering entering into pre-trial agreements” (PTAs), a letter to the families read, according to The Associated Press. While the letter stressed that no plea agreement had “been finalized and may never be finalized,” there was a possibility that a PTA “in this case would remove the possibility of the death penalty.”
The Associated Press spoke to Jim Riches, who lost his firefighter son Jimmy in the 9/11 attacks. Riches witnessed the suspects’ pre-trial hearing at Guantanamo Bay in 2009, and now, 14 years later, he has stated that he has little hope for justice.
“No matter how many letters they send, until I see it, I won’t believe it,” Riches stated. Riches said that initially, he was open to the use of military processes for the suspects, but now he believes the process has failed and would rather see the matter taken up in a civilian court. It’s been 22 years since the attacks, and “those guys are still alive. Our children are dead,” Riches stated.
The attacks killed 2,977 people from 93 countries, including 2,753 people in New York, 184 people in the Pentagon, and 40 passengers on Flight 93.
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