A military judge has delayed proceedings in the Sept. 11 case until late next week, giving government lawyers time to decide whether to try again to upset a plea deal that permits three men accused of plotting the attacks to serve life in prison rather than face a possible death-penalty trial.
Col. Matthew N. McCall, the judge, said Friday that he and other court officials would travel to Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, on Saturday, but postponed the plea-taking proceedings at the war court there until Jan. 10. He cited three reasons, according to lawyers who have seen the order:
A snowstorm coming to the Washington area that could complicate communications between a courtroom annex in Virginia and the courtroom itself; the federal holiday on Jan. 9 for Jimmy Carter’s funeral; and time required to meet with prosecution and defense lawyers to discuss the mechanics of a question-and-answer session between the judge and the accused plotters of the attack.
The plea hearing, originally scheduled for Jan. 6, is for Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, who is accused of being the mastermind of the hijacking attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people in New York, Pennsylvania and at the Pentagon.
Hearings will follow in the next week for two other defendants: Walid bin Attash, an accused deputy in the plot, and Mustafa al-Hawsawi, who is accused of helping some of the hijackers with finances and travel.
Prosecutors had sought a delay until after Jan. 27 to consult with the Justice Department on whether to seek to halt the proceedings at the U.S. Court of Military Commission Review. The deal was reached in July after more than two years of negotiations, and signed by the senior Pentagon official overseeing the military commissions.
Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III tried to withdraw the government from the pleas two days later, but both the judge and a military appeals panel ruled separately that the contract was valid, clearing the way for this month’s open court examination of Mr. Mohammed and the other defendants on whether they voluntarily understood and entered into the agreements.
