Three of the men charged with plotting the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks have reached pre-trial agreements, the US Department of Defense said.
Khalid Sheikh Mohammad, Walid Muhammad Salih Mubarak Bin Attash and Mustafa Ahmed Adam al-Hawsawi have been detained at the US Naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba for years without trial.
According to US news agencies, the men will plead guilty in exchange for the prosecution agreeing not to seek the death penalty.
Terms of the plea agreement have not yet been made public.
Nearly 3,000 people in New York, Virginia and Pennsylvania were killed in al-Qaeda attacks, sparking the “War on Terror” and the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq.
It was the deadliest attack on US soil since Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii in 1941, which killed 2,400 people.
The deal was first announced in a letter sent by prosecutors to the victim’s family, according to New York Times.
“In exchange for the removal of the death penalty, these three defendants have agreed to plead guilty to all counts, including the murders of 2,976 people listed in the indictment,” the letter from lead prosecutor Rear Adm. Aaron Rugh said.
The men were charged with a variety of crimes, including attacks on civilians, murder in violation of the laws of war, hijacking and terrorism.
The Times reported that they are expected to formally file an appeal with the court as early as next week.
In September, the Biden administration reportedly rejected the terms of a plea deal with five men held at a US Navy base in Cuba, including Mohammad.
The men are said to have asked the president for assurances that they would not be held incommunicado and would receive treatment for their injuries.
The White House National Security Council said the president’s office was informed of the deal on Wednesday and played no role in the plea deal negotiations.
Khalid Sheikh Mohammad is considered the mastermind of the attacks, in which hijackers took over passenger jets and crashed them into the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon outside Washington.
A third plane crashed into a field in Pennsylvania after passengers fought back.
Mohammad, a US-educated engineer, was arrested along with Hawsawi in Pakistan in March 2003.
Prosecutors argued that he brought the idea of hijacking planes and flying them into U.S. buildings to al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, and then helped recruit and train some of the hijackers.
He was subjected to a number of “enhanced interrogation techniques”, including “water torture” – simulating drowning – at least 183 times before the practice was banned by the US government.
In his letter, Admiral Rugh wrote that the decision to accept the deal “was not an easy one” and was “on the best path… towards justice”.
However, Jim Smith, whose wife died in the attack, told New York Post Office that the victims’ families have “waited 23 years for their day in court to document what these animals did to our loved ones.”
“They took that opportunity away from us,” he said, adding that they should receive “the highest punishment” for their role.
