US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin has revoked a pre-trial agreement reached with the men accused of plotting the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
In a memo on Friday, Mr. Austin also said that he was revoking the authority of the court-martial official who signed the agreement on Wednesday.
The initial agreement, which reportedly would not have avoided the death penalty for the accused, was criticized by some of the victims’ families.
The 9/11 attacks on New York, Virginia and Pennsylvania were the worst attacks on US soil since the 1941 Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, in which 2,400 people were killed. They caused the “War on Terror” and the invasion of Afghanistan and Iraq.
In his written letter, Mr. Austin named five defendants, including the alleged ringleader of the plot, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, who are all being held at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. The first agreement called for three men.
“I have decided that, because of the importance of the decision to enter into pre-trial agreements with the accused… the responsibility for such a decision should rest with me as the supreme authority,” Mr Austine wrote to Brig General Susan Escalier. .
“I hereby revoke your authority. From that time, in exercising my authority, I hereby withdraw from the three pre-trial agreements.”
The White House said Wednesday it was not involved in the settlement agreement.
The five men named in the memo were: Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, commonly referred to as KSM, Walid Muhammad Salih Mubarak bin Attash, Mustafa Ahmed Adam al-Hawsawi; and two others not mentioned in the original petition: Ramzi bin al-Shibh and Ali Abdul Aziz Ali.
These men have been imprisoned without trial for decades. They all said they were tortured – KSM was drenched in imitation, called “waterboarding”, 183 times before being banned by the US government.
They have all faced more than a decade of pre-trial detention, which has been muddled by allegations and evidence of their abuse.
Many family members of the victims criticized the terms of the plea agreement reached on Wednesday as too lenient.
Brett Eagleson, president of 9/11 Justice, which represents survivors and relatives of victims, told the BBC earlier this week that families are “very concerned about these plea deals”.
Speaking on Saturday, Terry Strada, who lost her husband Tom and is chairman of the 9/11 Families United group, told the BBC she was “very happy” to see the Pentagon withdraw the plea deal and put the death penalty back on the table.
If the men are found guilty after the trial, Mrs. Strada said she would like to see the death penalty, “not because I am a bad or evil person, it is because it is associated with a crime”.
“They killed almost 3,000 Americans on American soil… their lives were changed forever that day,” he added.
Said the Guantanamo lawyer representing Mohammed The New York Times that he was startled by a sudden turn.
“If the secretary of defense issued this order, I respect and am very disappointed that after all these years the government has not learned its lesson from this case,” said attorney Gary Sowards.
“And the evil that comes from neglecting due process and fair play.”
They are accused of a series of crimes, including attacks on civilians, killings in violation of the laws of war, hijacking and terrorism.
In September, the Biden administration reportedly scrapped the terms of a plea deal with five men held at a U.S. military base in Cuba, including Mohammed.
They are said to have wanted assurances from the president that they will not be locked up in isolation and that they will also receive trauma treatment.
KSM is accused of bringing the idea of hijacking and flying planes into buildings to al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden. He was arrested in Pakistan in 2003 along with Hawsawi, a Saudi who was suspected of raising money.
Ali, a computer scientist and nephew of KSM, is accused of providing technical assistance in the 9/11 operation.
Bin al-Shibh, from Yemen, is suspected of plotting the attack and planning to become a criminal but was unable to obtain a US visa.
Bin Attash, also from Yemen, is accused of bombing the USS Cole in Yemen in 2000, which killed 17 sailors, and of involvement in the September 11 attacks.
Several Republicans applauded the defense secretary for withdrawing the deal.
Speaker of the House Mike Johnson said “the Biden-Harris Administration is right to reverse course”, which he said was following the Republicans “launching an investigation into this bad deal”.
“We are now delivering long-awaited justice to the families of 9/11,” he said.
South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham said the decision “used good judgment”.
“The previous plea deal would have sent the wrong signal to terrorists around the world,” he added.
Earlier on Friday, Republican Chairman of the House Armed Services Committee Mike Rogers demanded answers from Mr. Austin about how the deal was done.
“This agreement demonstrates a willingness to negotiate with terrorists who willfully harm the American people,” he wrote in a letter to the defense secretary.
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