July 31 (UPI) -- Three men accused of plotting the 9/11 attacks on New York and the Pentagon have reached a deal with the United States and will plead guilty to avoid the death penalty, Pentagon officials announced Wednesday.
Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and two other defendants being held at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba agreed to the plea deals with federal prosecutors. Mohammed is the alleged mastermind of the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center in New York City and the Pentagon in Arlington County, Va., in 2001.
The two other defendants who the Pentagon says made plea agreements are Mustafa Ahmed Adam al Hawsawi and Walid Muhammad Salih Mubarak Bin 'Attash.
The Pentagon said the three men agreed to plead guilty to conspiracy charges to avoid the death penalty and serve life sentences instead.
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Mohammed was captured in Pakistan in 2003 and taken to Guantanamo Bay for his alleged role in the 9/11 terror attacks that killed more than 3,000 people.
Prosecutors in 2008 charged him with conspiracy, murder, attacking civilians and civilian objects, intentionally causing serious bodily injury, destruction of property, terrorism and material support of terrorism.
The U.S. initially sought the death penalty for Mohammed and the two co-defendants.
The Convening Authority for Military Commissions agreed to the plea deals with the three defendants on Wednesday.
Neither President Joe Biden nor any White House officials participated in arranging the plea agreements and in September rejected proposed conditions for plea agreements for the defendants.
The demands included no solitary confinement and being treated for injuries the defendants say they sustained while undergoing CIA interrogation.
The three defendants have been held at Guantanamo Bay since 2006 and had no trial dates set after years of legal delays.
