WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Monday rejected an appeal brought by Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and two other alleged 9/11 plotters seeking to hold the government to a plea deal it later withdrew.
\n\nThe court action removes one barrier to Mohammed standing trial before a military commission in 2028, where the death penalty is a possible punishment. He has been held at the U.S. base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, since 2006.
\n\nMohammed is accused of being the ringleader of the plot to crash hijacked planes into the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon on Sept. 11, 2001. A fourth plane crashed in a field in Pennsylvania.
\n\nThe other two men who appealed to the Supreme Court were Mustafa Ahmed al-Hawsawi and Walid bin Attash, who are also held at Guantanamo and set to face trial.
\n\nThe three men had agreed to a plea deal with military prosecutors in 2024, signed off on by a military commission judge, that would have given them life sentences.
\n\nBut days later, then-Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin rejected the proposal, saying he had the authority to override the deal.
\n\nMilitary courts said he had no such authority but, in an August ruling, the…
Original source: https://www.nbcnews.com/business