2024-08-04 05:09:43
(ANSA) – WASHINGTON, 02 AUG – Pentagon chief Lloyd Austin has relieved the supervisor of the Guantanamo Bay war tribunal and revoked the plea agreement reached in recent days with the mastermind of the September 11, 2001 attacks and two alleged accomplices, who would have avoided the death penalty in exchange for their guilty plea. Now they risk the death sentence again. The agreement had sparked strong controversy from the families of the victims and Republicans. The Pentagon announced the decision with the publication of a memorandum relieving the senior Defense Department official in charge of military commissions from his supervision of the case against Khalid Shaikh Mohammed and his alleged accomplices Walid bin Attach and Mustafa al-Hawsawi for the attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people in New York City, at the Pentagon and in a Pennsylvania camp. The supervisor, retired Brigadier General Susan K. Escallier, had signed a pretrial agreement with the three defendants offering them life sentences in exchange for their guilty pleas. In the revocation, Austin voided the agreement and assumed direct supervision of the case, effectively reinstating it as a death penalty case. Because of the stakes involved, “the responsibility for that decision must rest with me,” the defense secretary said. (ANSA).
2024-08-04 05:09:43