Just days after a military court signed a plea agreement with the alleged plotters behind the 11 September 2001 attacks, US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin stepped in and revoked the deal.
The BBC reports that the original deal, which would reportedly have spared the alleged attackers the death penalty, was criticised by some families of victims.
The White House has said that it had played no role in the plea deal, or its revocation.
In his memo, Austin wrote to Brig Gen Susan Escallier: “I have determined that, in light of the significance of the decision to enter into pre-trial agreements with the accused… responsibility for such a decision should rest with me as the superior authority.
“I hereby withdraw your authority. Effective immediately, in the exercise of my authority, I hereby withdraw from the three pre-trial agreements.”
According to the BBC, Austin named five defendants including the alleged ringleader of the plot, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, all of whom are held in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. The original deal named three men.
The five men named in the memo were: Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, often referred to as KSM, Walid Muhammad Salih Mubarak bin Attash, Mustafa Ahmed Adam al-Hawsawi; and two others not mentioned in the original plea: Ramzi bin al-Shibh and Ali Abdul Aziz Ali.
The men have been in custody for decades without trial. All have alleged they were tortured, with KSM being subjected to simulated drowning, so-called “waterboarding”, 183 times before it was banned by the US government.
All have already faced more than a decade of pre-trial hearings, complicated by the allegations and evidence of torture against them.