The Biden administration succeeded in halting a plea hearing for alleged 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed.

If Mohammed, the alleged plotter behind the 11 September terrorist attacks, had pleaded guilty on Friday, he could have avoided the death penalty.View on euronews

Lawyers for the accused 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed are urging a federal appeals panel to let his scheduled guilty plea in the attacks go forward

WASHINGTON (AP) — Lawyers for accused 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed are urging a federal appeals panel to let his scheduled guilty plea Friday n Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, go forward in a plea agreement that would spare him and two co-defendants the risk of the death penalty in al-Qaida's notorious Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

Washington – The Biden administration succeeded Thursday in temporarily blocking accused 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed from entering a guilty plea in a deal that would spare him the risk of execution for al-Qaida’s Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin had sought to withdraw agreements with Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and two others charged in the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

At a hearing beginning on Friday morning, Mohammed was scheduled to plead guilty to his role in the 11 September 2001 attacks, when hijackers seized passenger planes and crashed them into the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon outside of Washington.

An appeals court on Thursday temporarily blocked a plea deal for three accused 9/11 plotters in a win for the Justice Department and Pentagon, which had requested this week that the court block the agreements ahead of a Friday hearing.