A military judge on Tuesday provisionally set the week of Jan. 6 for a guilty plea hearing for Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, accused as the mastermind of the Sept. 11 attacks, a schedule that gives the government time to try to get out of the plea agreement.
Prosecutors negotiated the deal, which allows Mr. Mohammed to serve life in prison without the possibility of release or appeal for plotting the attack, which killed about 3,000 people on Sept. 11, 2001.
A Pentagon official in charge of military commissions signed the deal on July 31, and Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III revoked it two days later.
The judge, Col. Matthew N. McCall, however, ruled on Wednesday that Mr. Austin had acted too late and beyond the scope of his power. In his ruling, the judge also said that if the government were allowed to breach the contract, a clause could require the case to be tried without the possibility of a death penalty.
Prosecutors are preparing to appeal the ruling at the U.S. Court of Military Commission Review. The Pentagon panel is made up of presidentially appointed military and civilian judges who convene on an as-needed basis.
Colonel McCall said he would take Mr. Mohammed’s plea if the review panel “is done or allowing us to go forward.” He would then hold separate hearings for two other case defendants, Walid bin Attash and Mustafa al-Hawsawi, the following week.
Under the plan, the judge would exhaustively question the defendants separately on whether they had understood and voluntarily signed the settlement. Those documents are under seal. Mr. Mohammed’s includes a 20-page plea agreement and a 28-page narrative of his crimes.
The judge’s timetable would also partially resolve the case before the inauguration of President-elect Donald J. Trump and Mr. Austin’s expected departure from the Pentagon.
Prosecutors have told relatives of those killed in the attacks that the judge’s acceptance of the guilty pleas starts a process that could stretch well into 2025, including victim testimony for a military jury to decide a sentence. Mr. Mohammed’s agreement gives the jury a sentencing range to deliberate, which goes from 2,976 years — one for each of the named victims on the charge sheet — to 3,424 years.
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