Three men accused of plotting the September 11, 2001 attack on the United States have agreed a deal with American prosecutors to plead guilty to conspiracy and murder charges in exchange for a life sentence rather than a death-penalty trial at Guantánamo Bay. They have been held for more than two decades in custody without trial.

“In exchange for the removal of the death penalty as a possible punishment, these three accused have agreed to plead guilty to all of the charged offences, including the murder of the 2,976 people listed in the charge sheet,” a letter signed by Rear Adm. Aaron C. Rugh, the chief prosecutor for military commissions, and three lawyers on his team noted.

According to the New York Times, the three men namely: Khalid Shaikh Mohammed (59), Walid bin Attash (55) and Mustafa al-Hawsawi have been held in custody of the United States since 2003 with Mohammed, a U.S.-trained engineer, accused of initiating the idea of hijacking planes to fly into the World Trade Centre building in 1996 and helped train and direct the hijackers for the attack.

He was captured alongside Mr al-Hawsawi in March 2003. They were held in C.I.A secret prison for three years before being transferred to U.S. naval base in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, where they have been since then without a trial while being tortured with interrogators subjecting Mohammed to 183 rounds of waterboarding as well as other detainees.

Meanwhile, Mr Attash, who is in his mid-40s, has been described by prosecutors as another deputy who helped plot the September 11 attack by training the hijackers who executed assignments given to him by both Mr Mohammed and bin Laden, the Times reported.

The plea deal by the men was approved by a senior Pentagon official overseeing the war court after more than 27 months negotiations with prosecutors. According to the New York Times, the letter stated that the men could present their plea before an open court as soon as next week, eliminating months-long trials for the men.

It also prevented the possibility of a judge throwing out the case due to the methods in which confessions were extracted from the defendants. 

Nevertheless, there will still be a mini trial for the men but possibly not sooner than next year where a judge will formally accept their plea bargains at a military commission as well as compulsory enrolment of military jury to hear evidence, including testimony from victims of the attacks, and deliver a sentence.