Supreme Court Declines Bid to Revive Plea Deals for Accused 9/11 Mastermind

The US Supreme Court declined on Monday to hear a bid by Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the accused mastermind of the September 11, 2001, attacks, to revive a 2024 agreement that would have spared him the death penalty in exchange for a guilty plea, Reuters reported.

The justices turned away appeals by Mohammed and two co-defendants who had also signed plea agreements, upholding a lower court’s ruling that backed former Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin’s decision to void the deals. The appeals court rejected the argument that Austin, who served under former President Joe Biden, had acted too late.

The agreements for Mohammed, Mustafa al Hawsawi and Walid bin ‘Atash had been offered and accepted by the official overseeing the Pentagon’s Guantanamo war court, drawing criticism from Republican lawmakers. Austin revoked them two days later.

A military judge had ruled Austin lacked authority to invalidate the deals, a decision upheld in December by the US Court of Military Commission Review. The D.C. Circuit then backed scrapping the deals in a July 2025 2-1 vote, saying Austin “indisputably had legal authority to withdraw from the agreements.”

Defence lawyers, including American Civil Liberties Union attorneys, had argued Austin’s move “prolonged the best chance for finality in the September 11 case in a quarter century.” In August, a US Air Force judge set trial for June 2028, the latest milestone in a Guantanamo prosecution beset by two decades of legal gridlock.

Sources

• https://www.reuters.com/world/us-supreme-court-snubs-bid-revive-plea-deal-accused-911-mastermind-2026-10-19/
• https://jang.com.pk/en/74868-pentagon-plea-deal-appeals-denied-as-supreme-court-backs-scrapping-of-911-agreements-news
• https://northlandnewsradio.com/2026/10/19/us-supreme-court-snubs-bid-to-revive-plea-deal-for-accused-9-11-mastermind/