Prosecutors have reportedly opened negotiations for a potential plea deal that could eliminate a death penalty trial for the accused plotters behind the 9/11 terror attacks, including alleged mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed.
People familiar with the matter told The New York Times about the potential agreement, which comes nearly a decade after the five men’s arraignment and more than 20 years after the attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people.
Discussions about a plea began last week, and the case’s judge, defense and prosecution teams have traveled to Guantánamo Bay for three weeks of hearings regarding the matter, the Times reported.
Lead case prosecutor Clayton G. Trivett Jr. said the defense planned to see “whether pretrial agreements are possible for all five cases.”
The legal case was started during the George W. Bush administration and has been stuck in pretrial as a result of complications of allegations surrounding the CIA’s torture of the defendants.
It has also been delayed by a nearly two-year closure of the court due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
During a previous failed trial attempt during the Trump administration, the five men demanded that they complete their sentences at the Guantánamo detention facility in an apparent effort to avoid a Florence, Colo., prison where federal inmates are detained in solitude for up to 23 hours a day.
Meanwhile, the Biden administration has looked to end Guantánamo detention and use the facility as a military prison for a few men, the Times noted.
The possible plea arrangement would almost certainly disappoint some 9/11 victims’ family members, while others, especially those concerned about the United States’ use of torture, could see it as a fitting end to the years-long war court case, the Times added.