A three-judge appeals panel will decide whether the plea deal Khalid Shaikh Mohammed reached to avoid a death-penalty trial remains valid.

Lawyers for accused 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed are urging a federal appeals panel to let his scheduled guilty plea Friday in 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.

The Biden administration succeeded in blocking a plea deal for Khalid Sheikh Mohammed after a federal court issued an administrative stay of a hearing set for Friday. The alleged 9/11 mastermind was expected to plead guilty as part of a plea agreement worked out by military prosecutors that would have removed the death penalty as a possibility in his case.

The move comes after years of legal battles over the case, which remains in pretrial hearings 17 years after charges were first filed.

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and the Biden administration are attempting to block the deal to pursue capital punishment.

The appeal comes after the military judge at Guantanamo Bay and a military appeals panel rejects US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin's effort to throw out the plea deal