U.S. military judge rules government plea deals with 9/11 suspects are ‘enforceable contracts’

Plea deals for 9/11 alleged mastermind Khalid Shaikh Mohammed and two other suspects being held at Guantanamo Bay to receive life in prison instead of the death penalty have been upheld by a U.S. military judge, over-ruling U.S. Defense Secretary Llloyd Austin. File Photo by Kegan E. Kay/U.S. Navy/UPI | License Photo
Nov. 7 (UPI) — Plea deals for 9/11 alleged mastermind Khalid Shaikh Mohammed and two other suspects in the 2001 attacks on the United States to receive life in prison instead of the death penalty have been upheld by a U.S. military judge. Col. Matthew N. McCall overturned a decision by Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin reversing three pretrial agreements signed by a senior retired general he put in charge of military commissions at Guantanamo Bay, saying Austin did not have the power to do so and that he had acted too late. Advertisement
McCall said he would advance plans to have Mohammed and co-defendants Walid bin Attash and Mustafa al-Hawsawi, all detained at the U.S. Naval Station at Guantanamo Bay on the southeastern coast of Cuba, brought before his court individually to enter their pleas in the long-running case.
Prosecutors who negotiated the deals with the three defendants said the intention was to deliver a measure of