The lead defendant in the case of orchestrating terrorist attacks in the United States on September 11, 2001, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, along with two alleged accomplices, have struck a deal with American military prosecutors. According to The New York Times, they have agreed to plead guilty in exchange for a promise of life imprisonment instead of facing the death penalty.
It has been confirmed that the defendants will plead guilty to all charges, including the murder of 2976 individuals as listed in the indictment. Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, Walid bin Attash, and Mustafa al-Hawsawi have been held at the American base in Guantanamo, Cuba since 2023.
Now 59 years old, Mohammed, an engineer educated in the United States, is believed to have conceived the plan to hijack planes and crash them into buildings. Prosecutors claim that Mohammed devised the terrorist scheme and presented it to al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden in 1996. He is also accused of training the perpetrators.
According to the BBC, the pre-trial hearings for Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and his associates have been prolonged due to disagreements over the use of torture during the initial investigation. Prosecutors have been grappling with the ethical dilemma of whether evidence obtained through torture can be admissible in court.
Link from theins.ru