Zürcher Nachrichten - US military judge rules 9/11 mastermind plea deal is valid

EUR -
AED 3.826681
AFN 70.961758
ALL 98.138602
AMD 405.652886
ANG 1.877182
AOA 951.190259
ARS 1045.720247
AUD 1.602814
AWG 1.877897
AZN 1.775245
BAM 1.955573
BBD 2.102956
BDT 124.465544
BGN 1.955294
BHD 0.392554
BIF 3076.642669
BMD 1.041829
BND 1.403837
BOB 7.197164
BRL 6.043693
BSD 1.041579
BTN 87.914489
BWP 14.229347
BYN 3.408604
BYR 20419.848375
BZD 2.099456
CAD 1.456529
CDF 2991.091432
CHF 0.930957
CLF 0.036923
CLP 1018.83097
CNY 7.54601
CNH 7.562783
COP 4573.368835
CRC 530.538382
CUC 1.041829
CUP 27.608468
CVE 110.252195
CZK 25.343745
DJF 185.478458
DKK 7.457729
DOP 62.772709
DZD 139.835759
EGP 51.726992
ERN 15.627435
ETB 127.508391
FJD 2.371151
FKP 0.822333
GBP 0.831435
GEL 2.855018
GGP 0.822333
GHS 16.456089
GIP 0.822333
GMD 73.970229
GNF 8977.957272
GTQ 8.040066
GYD 217.904692
HKD 8.110066
HNL 26.320943
HRK 7.431636
HTG 136.72412
HUF 411.522823
IDR 16610.452733
ILS 3.856892
IMP 0.822333
INR 87.968134
IQD 1364.44153
IRR 43834.955489
ISK 145.523076
JEP 0.822333
JMD 165.930728
JOD 0.738765
JPY 161.244275
KES 134.884334
KGS 90.122166
KHR 4193.512952
KMF 492.268155
KPW 937.645704
KRW 1463.259646
KWD 0.320727
KYD 0.867999
KZT 520.059599
LAK 22878.342838
LBP 93271.167197
LKR 303.144792
LRD 187.998165
LSL 18.795317
LTL 3.076251
LVL 0.630192
LYD 5.086409
MAD 10.478083
MDL 18.997794
MGA 4861.435378
MKD 61.522855
MMK 3383.819949
MNT 3540.134882
MOP 8.35093
MRU 41.443187
MUR 48.810083
MVR 16.10707
MWK 1806.090235
MXN 21.283008
MYR 4.654932
MZN 66.583684
NAD 18.795317
NGN 1767.675143
NIO 38.325549
NOK 11.53576
NPR 140.663663
NZD 1.785942
OMR 0.400943
PAB 1.041579
PEN 3.949541
PGK 4.193513
PHP 61.404399
PKR 289.239507
PLN 4.337676
PYG 8131.055634
QAR 3.798559
RON 4.978071
RSD 116.991412
RUB 108.671879
RWF 1421.834864
SAR 3.911473
SBD 8.734231
SCR 14.272055
SDG 626.663972
SEK 11.497837
SGD 1.402931
SHP 0.822333
SLE 23.68116
SLL 21846.638123
SOS 595.230868
SRD 36.978718
STD 21563.75683
SVC 9.113941
SYP 2617.626467
SZL 18.788818
THB 35.922648
TJS 11.092512
TMT 3.646401
TND 3.309016
TOP 2.440072
TRY 35.9978
TTD 7.074178
TWD 33.946439
TZS 2770.578216
UAH 43.089995
UGX 3848.553017
USD 1.041829
UYU 44.294855
UZS 13362.448044
VES 48.506662
VND 26482.251319
VUV 123.688032
WST 2.90836
XAF 655.880824
XAG 0.033274
XAU 0.000384
XCD 2.815595
XDR 0.792308
XOF 655.880824
XPF 119.331742
YER 260.379151
ZAR 18.915093
ZMK 9377.71492
ZMW 28.772658
ZWL 335.468513
  • SCS

    0.2300

    13.27

    +1.73%

  • BCC

    3.4200

    143.78

    +2.38%

  • RIO

    -0.2200

    62.35

    -0.35%

  • NGG

    1.0296

    63.11

    +1.63%

  • RBGPF

    59.2400

    59.24

    +100%

  • GSK

    0.2600

    33.96

    +0.77%

  • RYCEF

    -0.0100

    6.79

    -0.15%

  • CMSC

    0.0320

    24.672

    +0.13%

  • CMSD

    0.0150

    24.46

    +0.06%

  • RELX

    0.9900

    46.75

    +2.12%

  • BCE

    0.0900

    26.77

    +0.34%

  • BTI

    0.4000

    37.38

    +1.07%

  • VOD

    0.1323

    8.73

    +1.52%

  • AZN

    1.3700

    65.63

    +2.09%

  • BP

    0.2000

    29.72

    +0.67%

  • JRI

    -0.0200

    13.21

    -0.15%

US military judge rules 9/11 mastermind plea deal is valid

US military judge rules 9/11 mastermind plea deal is valid

Plea agreements with 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and two other defendants are valid and binding, a US military judge said in a ruling published Thursday, three months after the deals were scrapped by Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin.

Text size:

The agreements -- which are understood to take the death penalty off the table -- had triggered anger among some relatives of victims of the 2001 attacks, and Austin has said that both they and the American public deserved to see the defendants stand trial.

Colonel Matthew McCall granted defense motions to schedule a hearing for the entry of pleas in keeping with the agreements made with the three defendants, the ruling said.

They are "enforceable contracts," which "transformed into binding agreements when signed by the Convening Authority, who had authority to sign them when she did so," it said, referring to the official behind the deals, Susan Escallier.

The prosecution has the opportunity to appeal the Wednesday ruling, but it was not immediately clear if they would do so.

Pentagon spokesman Major General Pat Ryder said in a statement that "we are reviewing the decision and don't have anything further at this time."

The plea deals with Mohammed and two alleged accomplices -- Walid bin Attash and Mustafa al-Hawsawi -- were announced in late July.

The decision appeared to have moved their long-running cases toward resolution after years of being bogged down in pre-trial maneuverings while the defendants remained held at the Guantanamo Bay military base in Cuba.

But Austin withdrew the agreements two days after they were announced, saying the decision should be up to him, given its significance.

He subsequently told journalists that "the families of the victims, our service members and the American public deserve the opportunity to see military commission trials carried out in this case."

- Torture -

Much of the legal jousting surrounding the men's cases has focused on whether they could be tried fairly after having undergone torture at the hands of the CIA in the years after 9/11 -- a thorny issue that the plea agreements would have avoided.

"For too long, the US has repeatedly defended its use of torture and unconstitutional military tribunals at Guantanamo Bay," Anthony Romero, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union, said Thursday.

Romero described the plea agreements as "the only practical solution" and said Austin "stepped out of bounds" by scrapping them.

"As a nation, we must move forward with the plea process and a sentencing hearing that is intended to give victim family members answers to their questions," he said in a statement.

Mohammed was regarded as one of Al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden's most trusted and intelligent lieutenants before his March 2003 capture in Pakistan. He then spent three years in secret CIA prisons before arriving at Guantanamo in 2006.

The trained engineer -- who has said he masterminded the 9/11 attacks "from A to Z" -- was involved in a string of major plots against the United States, where he attended university.

Bin Attash, a Saudi of Yemeni origin, allegedly trained two of the hijackers who carried out the September 11 attacks, and his US interrogators also said he confessed to buying the explosives and recruiting members of the team that killed 17 sailors in an attack on the USS Cole in 2000.

After the US invasion of Afghanistan in 2001, he took refuge in neighboring Pakistan and was captured there in 2003. He was then held in a network of secret CIA prisons.

Hawsawi is suspected of managing the financing for the 9/11 attacks. He was arrested in Pakistan on March 1, 2003, and was also held in secret prisons before being transferred to Guantanamo in 2006.

The United States used Guantanamo, an isolated naval base, to hold militants captured during the "War on Terror" that followed the September 11 attacks in a bid to keep the defendants from claiming rights under US law.

The facility held roughly 800 prisoners at its peak, but they have since slowly been repatriated to other countries. A small fraction of that number remain.

US President Joe Biden pledged before his election to try to shut down Guantanamo, but it remains open.

M.J.Baumann--NZN