{"id":1511186,"date":"2025-01-01T21:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-01-02T02:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/?p=1511186"},"modified":"2025-01-01T21:00:00","modified_gmt":"2025-01-02T02:00:00","slug":"appeals-court-upholds-deal-that-removes-death-penalty-for-alleged-9-11-mastermind","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/appeals-court-upholds-deal-that-removes-death-penalty-for-alleged-9-11-mastermind\/1511186\/","title":{"rendered":"Appeals Court Upholds Deal That Removes Death Penalty For Alleged 9\/11 Mastermind"},"content":{"rendered":"

Appeals Court Upholds Deal That Removes Death Penalty For Alleged 9\/11 Mastermind<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Authored by Zachary Stieber via The Epoch Times<\/a> (emphasis ours),<\/em><\/p>\n

The U.S. Department of Defense\u2019s appeals court has turned down the Pentagon\u2019s attempt to rescind the plea deals for the alleged mastermind of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and several alleged accomplices,<\/strong> paving the way for the men to avoid the death penalty.<\/p>\n

Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin attends a Rose Garden at the White House, on May 25, 2023. Madalina Vasiliu\/The Epoch Times<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin did not have the authority to rescind the deals<\/strong>, a panel of judges on the U.S. Court of Military Commission Review said in the Dec. 30 ruling<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Even if Austin did have the authority, he waited too long to act as lawyers for the alleged attackers had already started meeting requirements in their pretrial plea agreements, the panel said.<\/p>\n

The Pentagon had announced<\/a> on July 31 that Susan Escallier, the official whom Austin appointed to lead the military court that is handling the 9\/11 trials, signed off on the agreements with Khalid Shaikh (Sheikh) Mohammad, Walid Muhammad Salih Mubarak Bin \u2018Attash, and Mustafa Ahmed Adam al Hawsawi.<\/strong> Mohammed is accused of masterminding the 9\/11 attacks, which resulted in the deaths of nearly 3,000 in the United States, with help from the two others.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn exchange for the removal of the death penalty as a possible punishment, these three accused have agreed to plead guilty to all of the charged offenses, including the murder of the 2,976 people listed in the charge sheet<\/strong>,\u201d a letter<\/a> from military prosecutors to the families of victims of the attack said.<\/p>\n

Austin said<\/a> on Aug. 2 that given the case\u2019s significance, he would be in charge of it. He withdrew Escallier\u2019s authority and the pretrial agreements.<\/p>\n

U.S. Air Force Col. Matthew McCall, a judge, ruled<\/a> in November that Austin lacked the authority to withdraw the agreements. Even if he had the authority, it was too late to act, according to McCall.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf an accused begins performance of the terms of a PTA [pretrial agreement], the convening authority loses the right to withdraw from the dea<\/strong>l,\u201d the military judge wrote at the time.<\/p>\n

The Pentagon appealed the ruling, leading to Monday\u2019s decision.<\/p>\n

The panel of judges said that Austin could replace Escallier as the convening authority for the case, even without taking all of her responsibilities. However, they said that the intervention in the current case \u201cis without precedent\u201d and that based on a ruling in a different case, Austin cannot order the withdrawal of the deals for Mohammad, Attash, and Hawsawi.<\/p>\n

Escallier could withdraw the agreements, but only until the men started to meet the requirements, according to the panel.<\/p>\n

Austin can withdraw Escallier\u2019s authority to approve future agreements in the case, the judges said, in a partial victory for the military.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Tyler Durden<\/a><\/span>
\nWed, 01\/01\/2025 – 16:00<\/span><\/p>\n

\u200bhttps:\/\/www.zerohedge.com\/political\/appeals-court-upholds-deal-removes-death-penalty-alleged-911-mastermind<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Appeals Court Upholds Deal That Removes Death Penalty For Alleged 9\/11 Mastermind Authored by Zachary Stieber via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours), The U.S. Department…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":1511187,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1511186","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","wpcat-1-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1511186","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1511186"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1511186\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1511187"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1511186"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1511186"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1511186"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}