WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Monday rejected an appeal by Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and two other alleged 9/11 conspirators seeking to force the government to honor a plea deal it later withdrew.
The legal action removes an obstacle to Mohammed’s trial before a military commission in 2028, where the death penalty is a possible punishment. He has been detained at the American base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, since 2006.
Mohammed is accused of masterminding the plot to crash hijacked planes into New York’s World Trade Center and the Pentagon on September 11, 2001. A fourth plane crashed in a field in Pennsylvania.
The other two men who appealed to the Supreme Court were Mustafa Ahmed al-Hawsawi and Walid bin Attash, who are also detained at Guantanamo and face trial.
The three men had reached a plea deal with military prosecutors in 2024, signed by a military commission judge, that would have gotten them life in prison.
But days later, then-Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin rejected the proposal, saying he had the authority to cancel the deal.
Military courts said he had no such authority, but in an August ruling, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit sided with the government, prompting the men to appeal to the Supreme Court.
In particular, they argued that the appeals court did not have the power to intervene in the case.
The long delay in Mohammed’s trial was partly due to concerns about evidence obtained under CIA torture.
A fourth alleged co-conspirator facing trial, Ali Abdul Aziz Ali, was not involved in the appeal.
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