A deal between the US and three defendants in connection with the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks had already been revealed to the victims' families.
The US Department of Defense confirmed on Thursday that the mastermind responsible for September 11 and two accomplices agreed to plead guilty to the crimes they are accused of in exchange for a lighter sentence.
The news was reported yesterday by the New York Times, which wrote that this deal had been sealed between the US and the detainees.
Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the mastermind, Walid Muhammad Salih Mubarak Bin Attash and Mustafa Ahmed Adam al-Hawsawi, had been awaiting trial at the Guantanamo military prison for years.
The official details of the deal have not yet been officially revealed, but the press explains that, in exchange for admitting guilt for the deaths of almost three thousand people, victims of the attacks in New York, Virginia and Pennsylvania, the three will be sentenced to life in prison instead of being sentenced to death.
According to a statement from 9/11 Justice sent to the BBC, an organization that represents survivors and families of the victims, the families are "deeply disturbed by these plea bargains".
"It was a punch in the gut to know that there was a deal that is giving the detainees what they want", explained Terry Strada, who lost her husband in the attacks, to the BBC. "It's a victory for Khalid Sheikh Mohammad and for the other two, it's a victory for them", she added.
The men were charged with a series of crimes, including attacking civilians, murder in violation of the laws of war, hijacking aircraft and terrorism. Khalid Sheikh Mohammed is widely regarded as the architect of the attack, in which hijackers hijacked passenger planes and crashed them into the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon outside Washington.
Another plane crashed in Pennsylvania after the same technique was used, but passengers managed to take control of the plane.
Mohammed, a US-trained engineer and a self-confessed jihadist, and Hawsawi were arrested in 2003 during a raid in Pakistan. According to prosecutors, Mohammed presented the idea to Osama bin Laden, the leader of al-Qaeda, in 1996 and then helped the hijackers train them.
The case has been pending for more than a decade because there were doubts about whether the torture the men were subjected to had tainted their testimonies about the case.
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