WASHINGTON: The US Supreme Court on Monday rejected a bid by Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the alleged mastermind of the September 11, 2001, attacks, to revive a controversial 2024 plea deal that would have spared him the death penalty.
Mohammed, widely known as “KSM,” is scheduled to face a military trial beginning June 5, 2028, after more than two decades in US custody at the Guantanamo Bay naval base in Cuba.
The Supreme Court’s rejection was not accompanied by any noted dissents. Justice Brett Kavanaugh recused himself from the case, having served in the George W. Bush administration’s White House counsel’s office at the time of Mohammed’s capture in 2003.
The proposed plea agreement had been intended to resolve the case without a potential death sentence. The Supreme Court’s decision leaves Mohammed’s legal challenge unsuccessful and the case on course for the scheduled military trial.