The accused mastermind of 9/11 has accepted a plea deal to avoid a death penalty trial at Guantánamo Bay—and instead will be sentenced to a year for each life he claimed: 2,976 in total, according to a senior law enforcement official close to the situation who spoke with the Daily Beast.
Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, one of Osama bin Laden’s closest confidantes, took the deal from his cell in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, where he has been held for close to two decades. Two other detainees also took plea deals to dodge a death penalty trial but are still to be sentenced, the law enforcement official said.
As Mohammed agreed to the deal, a sandstorm from the Sahara blew through Guantánamo Bay, briefly knocking out the power, according to the same official.
“The Convening Authority for Military Commissions has entered into pretrial agreements with Khalid Shaikh Mohammad, Walid Muhammad Salih Mubarak Bin ‘Attash, and Mustafa Ahmed Adam al Hawsawi, three of the co-accused in the 9/11 case,” an Office of Military Commissions spokesperson told the New York Post.
The deal was struck after victims’ families and the defense agreed there would be no way Mohammed could receive the death penalty because of legal difficulties that arose out of allegations that he had been tortured, according to the same official. The official added that the families also wanted to see justice in their life times.
“In exchange for the removal of the death penalty as a possible punishment, these three accused (Mohammad, Attash and al Hawsawi) have agreed to plead guilty to all of the charged offenses, including the murder of the 2,976 people listed in the charge sheet,” chief prosecutor for the military commission Rear Adm. Aaron C. Rugh wrote in a letter sent to the families of victims obtained by The New York Times.
The discrepancy between the official death toll of those killed on 9/11, 2,977, and the charge sheet, arose after one family member of a victim had refused to accept the death certificate when the original charging documents were created.
Currently, Mohammad, Attash and al Hawsawi are being held in Guantánamo Bay. Mohammad has been held in U.S. custody since 2003 when he was captured in Pakistan by Pakistani authorities.
Mohammad may stay in Guantánamo Bay during the entirety of his sentence due to U.S. law, according to the same official, but they did not specify which. The official added that the families will also be able to file victim impact statements.
Another 9/11 plotter was ruled legally insane and another will go to trial, according to the same official.
1,013 people who died on 9/11 have still not been identified.
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