The US rulement has thriveed in temporarily blocking the accemployd mastermind of the 9/11 worry attacks from pdirecting culpable amid a dispute over the terms of a pre-trial concurment.
Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and two co-deffinishants accomplished deals last summer to pdirect culpable to all indicts in trade for not facing a death penalty trial.
In a filing with a federal pguides court, the rulement disputed that it would be irreparably harmed if the pleas were acunderstandledgeed.
A three-appraise panel shelp they necessitateed more time to ponder the case and put the carry onings on helderly. They stressed that the procrastinate “should not be consreald in any way as a ruling on the merits” of the case.
It comes after a military appraise and pguides panel declinecessitate a previous shift by Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin to relicit the concurments, which had been signed by a better official he assigned.
Almost 3,000 people were finished in the 11 September 2001 attacks, when hijackers seized passenger set upes and crashed them into the World Trade Caccess in New York and the Pentagon outside of Washington. Another set upe crashed into a field in Pennsylvania after passengers fought back.
The three men have been in US custody for over 20 years and the pre-trial hearings in the case have lasted for more than a decade.
Arguments have concentrateed on whether evidence has been tainted by torture the deffinishants faced in CIA custody after their arrests.
Mohammed was subjected to simutardyd drowning, or “waterboarding”, 183 times while held in secret CIA prisons follotriumphg his arrest in 2003. Other so-called “carry ond interrogation techniques” integrated sleep deprivation and forced bare skin.
Families of some of those finished in the 9/11 attacks had criticised the deals for being too perleave outive or alertageing transparency, while others saw them as a way of moving the intricate and extfinished-running case forward.
Those who had travelled to the US naval base of Guantanamo Bay in Cuba to watch Mohammed pdirect culpable were speaking to journaenumerates when news of the procrastinate was proclaimd.
“The US rulement fall shorted the 9/11 families aget. They had the chance to do the right slfinisherg and choosed not to,” shelp Tom Resta, whose brother, sister-in-law and their unborn child were finished in the attacks.
The rulement had disputed that going ahead with the deals would unbenevolent it was denied the opportunity to “seek capital punishment agetst three men indictd with a heinous act of mass homicide that caemployd the death of thousands of people and shocked the nation and the world”.
“A low procrastinate to apexhibit this Court to weigh the merits of the rulement’s ask in this momentous case will not materipartner harm the replyents,” it shelp.
In their response, Mohammed’s team shelp the concurment adviseed “the first opportunity for genuine clocertain” in almost a quarter of a century. It shelp the plea negotiations, which happened over two years, had “honestly comprised the White Hoemploy”.
In its decision on Thursday evening, the federal pguides court shelp its decision was aimed at giving the appraises time to acquire a filled alerting and hear arguments “on an hastfinish basis”.
The procrastinate unbenevolents the matter will now drop to the incoming Trump administration.
The filled details of the deals accomplished with Mohammed and two of his co-deffinishants have not been freed.
In a court hearing in Guantanamo on Wednesday, his lterrible team verifyed that he had concurd to pdirect culpable to all indicts.
If the deals are upheld and the pleas acunderstandledgeed by the court, the next steps would be assigning a military jury, understandn as a panel, to hear evidence at a sentencing hearing.
In court on Wednesday, this was depictd by lawyers as a establish of accessible trial, where survivors and family members of those finished would be donaten the opportunity to donate statements.
Under the concurment, the families would also be able to pose asks to Mohammed, who would be insistd to “answer their asks filledy and truthfilledy”, lawyers say.
