US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin has scraped a plea agreement for the accused 9/11 attacks mastermind and two other defendants. According to media reports, the move comes two days after the military commission at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, announced it had reached plea deals with Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and two accused accomplices, Walid bin Attash and Mustafa Al-Hawsawi, in the attacks.

The US authorities had sent letters to families of the nearly 3,000 people killed in the Al-Qaeda attacks, which said the three would serve life sentences as per the plea agreement. Some families of the attack’s victims condemned the deal for cutting off any possibility of full trials and possible death penalties.

Accused mastermind Mohammed and the other two defendants had been expected to formally enter their pleas under the deal as soon as next week.