The decision came after a military commission in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, announced that the three, along with Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and his alleged accomplices, would have been sentenced to life in prison instead of the death penalty.

In a surprising turn of events, US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin has revoked plea agreements for accused mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and two other defendants in the September 11, 2001 attacks. The ruling reinstates the death penalty option for the three, as reported by the Associated Press. Austin has directly observed the military tribunal at Guantanamo, bringing back the death penalty for Mohammed and his accomplices.

“In light of the significance of the decision, I have determined that I have the authority to decide whether to accept the plea agreement,” Austin wrote in an order issued Friday night, which voided the agreement.

The decision came days after a military commission in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, announced that it had reached a plea deal with Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and his alleged accomplices, Walid bin Attash and Mustafa al-Hawsawi. According to the deal, the three would have been sentenced to life in prison. While some families of 9/11 victims reluctantly accepted the initial plea deal, the latest development has angered many.

Letters sent to the families of 9/11 victims revealed that the accused would be sentenced to life in prison, sparking outrage among some relatives. Critics have criticized the deal for avoiding full trials and the possibility of the death penalty, which led to widespread protests. Republicans wasted no time in crediting the deal to the Biden administration, even after the White House denied any prior knowledge of the arrangement.

Mohammed and the other defendants were expected to formally enter their pleas under the deal as early as next week. The US military commission handling the cases of five defendants involved in the September 11 attacks has been mired in pre-trial hearings and preliminary court proceedings since 2008.

Several Republican lawmakers, including House of Representatives Speaker Mike Johnson and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, criticized the handling of the petition. Mohammed is the most famous inmate at Guantanamo Bay, a detention center established by then-US President George W. Bush in 2002 to hold foreign terrorist suspects following the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States.

Mohammed is accused of plotting to fly a hijacked commercial airliner into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon in New York City. The 9/11 attacks, as they are known, killed nearly 3,000 people and plunged the United States into two decades of war in Afghanistan. Two other prisoners, Walid Muhammad Salih Mubarak bin Atash and Mustafa Ahmed Adam Al Hawsawi, also entered into plea agreements.