The families of the victims of the 2001 terrorist attack have been informed of the agreement that has been reached. Three defendants will serve life sentences instead of the death penalty.
The man who was accused of planning the 11 September attacks has agreed to plead guilty to the charges, reports the New York Times.
So did two of his accomplices. The agreement should result in the trio being sentenced to life imprisonment rather than the death penalty.
According to sources close to the Department of Defence, a senior official from the same body has already given the green light to the deal, which involves Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, Walid bin Attash and Mustafa al-Hawsawi.
The three men in question have been in US custody since 2003 and, according to the US publication, the relatives of the victims of the terrorist attack have already been informed of the agreement.
‘In exchange for the withdrawal of the death penalty as a possible punishment, the three defendants have agreed to plead guilty to all charges, including the deaths of 2,976 listed in the indictment documents,’ reads the letter sent to the relatives and quoted by the publication.
The letter said that the men could still make their pleas as early as next week. Pleading guilty could avoid what was expected to be a trial that could last up to a year and a half.
The mastermind of the attack, Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, is an engineer who trained in the United States - and also an avowed jihadist - and was responsible for coming up with the idea to hijack the planes and crash them into the World Trade Centre.
According to prosecutors, Mohammed presented the idea to Osama bin Laden, leader of Al-Qaeda, in 1996 and then helped the hijackers during their training.
The case has been awaiting trial for more than a decade because there were doubts as to whether the torture the men were subjected to had tampered with their testimony about the case.
