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A4 U.S. NEWS
Thursday 17 augusT 2023

Plea negotiations could mean no 9/11 defendants face the death

penalty

By ELLEN KNICKMEYER and senger-filled missiles, hitting
JENNIFER PELTZ New York’s World Trade
Associated Press Center and the Pentagon
WASHINGTON (AP) — The near Washington. A fourth
suspected architect of plane was headed for
the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks Washington but crashed
and his fellow defendants in Pennsylvania after crew
may never face the death members and passengers
penalty under plea agree- tried to storm the cockpit.
ments now under consid- It was Mohammed who
eration to bring an end to presented the very idea
their more than decade- of such an attack on the
long prosecution, the Pen- United States to al-Qaida
tagon and FBI have ad- leader Osama bin Laden,
vised families of some of and who received autho-
the thousands killed. rization from bin Laden to
The notice, made in a letter craft what became the
that was sent to several of 9/11 attacks, the United
the families and obtained States’ 9/11 Commission
by The Associated Press, concluded. The four other
comes 1 1/2 years after defendants are alleged to
military prosecutors and have supported the hijack-
defense lawyers began ex- ers in various ways.
ploring a negotiated reso- The attacks led to the U.S.
lution to the case. “war on terror,” which in-
The prosecution of Khalid This Saturday March 1, 2003, photo obtained by The Associated Press shows Khalid Shaikh cluded U.S. invasions and
Sheikh Mohammed and Mohammad, the alleged Sept. 11 mastermind, shortly after his capture during a raid in Pakistan. prolonged wars in Afghani-
four others held at the U.S. Associated Press stan, where al-Qaida was
detention center in Guan- ing entering into pre-trial outrage over the prospect bers only this week. It asks based, and in Iraq, which
tanamo Bay, Cuba, has agreements,” or PTAs, of ending the case short of them to respond by Mon- had no connection with
been troubled by repeat- the letter said. It told the a verdict. The military pros- day to the FBI’s victim ser- the attacks.
ed delays and legal dis- families that while no plea ecutors pledged to take vices division with any com- Jim Riches, who lost his fire-
putes, especially over the agreement “has been fi- their views into consider- ments or questions about fighter son Jimmy in 9/11,
legal ramifications of the nalized, and may never be ation and present them to the possibility of such a plea went to Guantanamo for
interrogation under torture finalized, it is possible that the military authorities who agreement. The FBI had no pretrial hearings in 2009. He
that the men initially under- a PTA in this case would re- would make the final deci- comment Wednesday on remains deeply frustrated
went while in CIA custody. move the possibility of the sion on accepting any plea the letter. that the case remains un-
No trial date has been set. death penalty.” agreement. On Sept. 11, 2001, conspira- resolved 14 years later. He
“The Office of the Chief Some of relatives of the The letter, dated Aug. 1, tors from the al-Qaida mili- said he laughed bitterly
Prosecutor has been ne- nearly 3,000 people killed in was received by at least tant group seized control when he opened the gov-
gotiating and is consider- the terror attacks expressed some of the family mem- of jets to use them as pas- ernment’s letter Monday.q

Former Brazilian military police officer convicted in 2015 deaths

arrested in New Hampshire

BOSTON (AP) — A former and Customs Enforcement attempted homicides and
military police officer who and Removal Operations torture in the poor suburbs
was convicted of multiple office based in Boston said of Fortaleza, the capital of
murders and sentenced to in a news release Wednes- the Ceara state.
more than 200 years in pris- day. Vidal Filho attended the tri-
on for his part in a 2015 Bra- He was arrested Monday al remotely, as he had fled
zilian massacre has been in Rye, New Hampshire Brazil for the U.S. in 2019, on-
arrested in New Hampshire, and will remain in custody line news site G1 reported.
immigration officials said. pending a hearing be- In total, some 20 police of-
Antônio José de Abreu Vi- fore a federal immigration ficers are standing trial for
dal Filho, 29, became the judge. No further details the massacre.
subject of an active Inter- were provided on how he The crimes took place in
pol Red Notice issued by was tracked to New Hamp- Nov. 2015 after the death
the international criminal shire or his activities there. of a police officer and dur-
police organization after Vidal Filho was convicted ing what’s become known
he was convicted of 11 by a criminal court in Brazil, as the “Curio Massacre,”
murders and sentenced in This image provided by U.S. Immigration and Customs along with three other mili- after the name of the
June to nearly 276 years in Enforcement (ICE) shows former Brazilian military police officer tary police officers, for the neighborhood in Fortaleza
prison, the U.S. Immigration Antonio Jose De Abreu Vidal Filho, right. slaying of 11 people, three where they occurred.q
Associated Press