On Tuesday US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said that the families of the victims and the American public have the right to witness the trial of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the mastermind behind the 9/11 attacks, along with the other defendants.
The plea deals with 9/11 mastermind Mohammed and two alleged accomplices were announced on July 31, which lead to anger among the relatives and families of those killed on September 11, 2001. It also drew criticism from leading Republican politicians, after which the US Defence Chief Austin scrapped the deal two days later.
During a news conference in Annapolis, Austin told journalists, ‘The families of the victims, our service members, and the American public deserve the chance to witness the military commission trials being conducted in this case’.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said, ‘The only thing worse than negotiating with terrorists is negotiating with them after they are in custody’. Additionally, some of the victims’ families were also disturbed that the men accused of killing their loved ones had made a plea with the US government and effectively sidestepped the death penalty.
The cases against those accused of the 9/11 attacks have been subject to pre-trial processes. The terms of the deals were not made public, but according to the media reports, Mohammed, Walid bin Attash and Mustafa al-Hawsawi had agreed to plead guilty to conspiracy in exchange for life imprisonment, avoiding a potential death penalty trial.
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