The Department of Defense filed an emergency request with a federal appeals court Tuesday in an effort to stop plea deals given to three accused terrorists involved in the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

The emergency request is trying to stop the three Guantanamo Bay detainees, 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and two coconspirators, Walid Bin Attash and Mustafa al Hawsawi, from a plea deal they already agreed to, which would spare them the death penalty in exchange for life in prison and guilty pleas. 

“That ruling countermands the Secretary’s considered judgment about the appropriate handling of a case of unique national importance,” wrote Brian Fletcher, principal deputy solicitor general. “Preserving the Secretary of Defense’s authority to make fundamental decisions about the handling of the prosecutions of the individuals allegedly responsible for those attacks is a matter of critical importance warranting the issuance of extraordinary relief.”

Mohammed, or KSM, has been in U.S. custody for more than 20 years and is expected to enter his guilty plea Friday. His coconspirators are expected to plea next week.

Prosecutors with the Pentagon’s Office of Military Commissions and the defendants agreed to the plea deal in July, but Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin revoked the offer days later following public criticism.

A military judge ruled in November that the plea agreements were valid and threw out Austin’s revocation of the deal. A military appeals court also ruled against the secretary’s appeal in December.

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Austin was “certainly surprised” when the plea deal was announced back in July, Pentagon deputy spokeswoman Sabrina Singh told reporters days later, adding that the secretary believes people “deserve to see military commission trials carried out in this case.”

The three men are among the remaining few detainees at Guantanamo Bay. There are currently 15 prisoners at the facility, which then-President George W. Bush created in 2002 during the “war on terror,” a significant decrease from the 40 detainees who were there at the beginning of President Joe Biden’s term in January 2021. Biden said during his campaign that it was his goal to oversee the closure of the prison. However, it will remain open until the next administration.