US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin has revoked a pre-trial agreement reached with the men accused of orchestrating the 11 September 2001 attacks. In a memo on Friday, Austin also rescinded the authority of the officer overseeing the military court, who had signed the agreement on Wednesday.

The initial deal, which reportedly would have spared the alleged attackers the death penalty, faced criticism from some victims’ families. The 9/11 attacks on New York, Virginia, and Pennsylvania were the deadliest on US soil since the 1941 Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, killing 2,400 people. The 9/11 events prompted the “War on Terror” and the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq.

In his memo, Austin named five defendants, including the alleged ringleader Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, all held in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. The original deal mentioned three men.

“I have determined that, in light of the significance of the decision to enter into pre-trial agreements with the accused… responsibility for such a decision should rest with me as the superior authority,” Austin wrote to Brig Gen Susan Escallier. “I hereby withdraw your authority. Effective immediately, in the exercise of my authority, I hereby withdraw from the three pre-trial agreements.”

The White House stated on Wednesday that it had no role in the plea deal. The five men named in the memo are Khalid Sheikh Mohammed (KSM), Walid Muhammad Salih Mubarak bin Attash, Mustafa Ahmed Adam al-Hawsawi, Ramzi bin al-Shibh, and Ali Abdul Aziz Ali.

The men have been in custody for decades without trial, all alleging torture, with KSM subjected to waterboarding 183 times before it was banned by the US government. They have already faced over a decade of pre-trial hearings, complicated by torture allegations and evidence.

Several victims’ family members criticized the original plea deal terms as too lenient. Brett Eagleson, president of 9/11 Justice, representing survivors and relatives, expressed concern over the plea deals. On Saturday, Terry Strada, who lost her husband Tom and chairs the 9/11 Families United group, told the BBC she was “very pleased” to see the Pentagon revoke the plea deal and put the death penalty back on the table.

If the men are found guilty after a trial, Strada said she would want to see the death penalty, “not because I am ghoulish or a horrible person, it’s because it fits the crime.” She added, “They’ve murdered nearly 3,000 Americans on American soil… lives were just permanently altered on that day.”

Gary Sowards, a lawyer representing Mohammed at Guantanamo, expressed shock at the sudden reversal. “If the secretary of defense issued such an order, I am respectfully and profoundly disappointed that after all these years the government still has not learned the lessons of this case,” Sowards told The New York Times. “And the mischief that results from disregarding due process and fair play.”

The men face numerous charges, including attacking civilians, murder in violation of the laws of war, hijacking, and terrorism. In September, the Biden administration reportedly rejected the terms of a plea deal with the five men held at the US Navy base in Cuba, including Mohammed. The men had sought a guarantee from the president that they would not be kept in solitary confinement and would have access to trauma treatment.