International Courant
The Pentagon chief was shocked by prosecutors’ choice final week to supply the lads a deal.
US Protection Secretary Lloyd Austin has defended his choice to withdraw controversial plea agreements between prosecutors and three males accused of plotting the September 11, 2001 assaults.
Austin spoke publicly about his choice for the primary time on Tuesday, saying it was “not a call I took calmly” and that he did so to honor the magnitude of the loss he suffered that day.
“I’ve lengthy believed that the households of the victims, our navy personnel and the American public deserve the chance to see navy commissions and fee trials,” he stated throughout a gathering with visiting Australian officers in Annapolis, Maryland.
The Pentagon introduced on July 31 that it had reached a settlement with three of the 5 alleged conspirators held on the Guantanamo Bay detention middle, the place they’re accused of orchestrating the deadliest assault on U.S. soil within the nation’s historical past.
Almost 3,000 folks had been killed that day when hijacked passenger planes attacked targets in New York Metropolis and Washington, D.C. A fourth crashed right into a subject when passengers confronted the hijackers.
The offers concerned alleged mastermind Khalid Shaikh Mohammad and accomplices Walid bin Attash and Mustafa al-Hawsawi. A fourth suspect didn’t comply with the phrases, whereas a fifth man was declared mentally unfit to face trial final 12 months.
In an announcement, it described the offers as “tentative agreements,” with out giving additional particulars. US media reported that the lads would plead responsible in change for all times in jail as a substitute of the loss of life penalty.
The suspects are on account of seem earlier than a navy courtroom in a maximum-security jail in Cuba, however their instances have been on maintain for years on account of authorized wrangling.
Some, together with J Wells Dixon, an lawyer on the Heart for Constitutional Rights, noticed the settlements as the one viable solution to resolve the long-stalled 9/11 instances.
Dixon, who has represented Guantanamo defendants and different detainees who’ve been acquitted of wrongdoing, accused Austin of “bowing to political strain and pushing a few of the victims’ households over an emotional cliff” by reversing the sentence.
The settlements sparked outrage from victims’ households and Republican lawmakers, who accused President Joe Biden’s administration of treating the defendants too calmly.
Austin himself was additionally shocked by the choice, Pentagon spokeswoman Sabrina Singh advised reporters on Monday.
“This isn’t one thing that the secretary (Lloyd Austin) was consulted about,” she stated. “We weren’t conscious that the prosecution or the protection can be getting into into the phrases of the plea settlement.”
A terse letter from the protection secretary on Friday stated the plea agreements had been withdrawn. Austin added that Susan Escallier, the official chargeable for the navy fee she signed, had additionally been relieved of her authority to enter into pretrial agreements and would now assume duty for the case.
“Efficient instantly, within the train of my authority, I hereby withdraw from the three provisional agreements you signed on July 31, 2024,” the letter reads.
US Nationwide Safety Adviser Jake Sullivan confirmed that the Biden administration performed no function within the settlements, saying the White Home was conscious of the announcement “the identical day”.
“We had no function in that course of. The president had no function. The vice chairman had no function. I had no function. The White Home had no function,” Sullivan advised reporters Thursday, with out explaining why the offers had been agreed to and introduced with out session.
US Protection Secretary Austin Defends Resolution to Revoke 9/11 Plea Offers | September 11 Information
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