THE mastermind behind the September 11, 2001, attacks has agreed to plead guilty more than two decades later in a desperate attempt to avoid the death penalty.
Khalid Sheikh Mohammed is accused of being the main plotter behind the attack, which saw the deaths of nearly 3,000 people.
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The US Department of Defense confirmed the guilty plea on Wednesday.
Mohammed and his accomplices, Walid Bin Attash and Mustafa al-Hawsawi, are expected to plead guilty at the military commission at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, as early as next week.
The terms of the plea deal haven’t been released.
It comes more than 16 years after the prosecution began against the al-Qaeda members.
More than 20 years ago, al-Qaeda militants flew commercial planes into the Twin Towers at the World Trade Center in New York City.
Terry Strada, the national chairperson of 9/11 Families United, heard about the plea deal, saying that many families have wanted the men to admit their guilt.
“For me personally, I wanted to see a trial,” she told the Associated Press.
“And they just took away the justice I was expecting, a trial and the punishment.”
Strada said the men were cowards when they planned the attack “and they’re cowards today.”
Meanwhile, congressional lawmakers slammed the plea deal, calling it a “national disgrace” and a “total miscarriage of justice.”
“The Biden-Harris Administration’s weakness in the face of sworn enemies of the American people apparently knows no bounds,” said Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnel in a statement.
“The plea deal with terrorists – including Khalid Sheik Mohammed, the mastermind of the 9/11 attacks that killed thousands of Americans – is a revolting abdication of the government’s responsibility to defend America and provide justice,” he continued.
“The only thing worse than negotiating with terrorists is negotiating with them after they are in custody.”
McConnell said that many of the families would not get the “real justice” they’ve been looking for nearly 23 years.
“The families of their victims and the American people deserve real justice,” he said.
“In the same week that Israel eliminated some of Iran’s most trusted terrorist proxies, the Administration’s decision to spare these mass-murderers from the death penalty is an especially bitter pill.”
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