The US government plans to appeal a military judge’s ruling That statement dealing with alleged 9/11 plotters at Guantanamo Bay, which were revoked by Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, is valid, a defense official said Saturday.

Prosecutors are expected to ask the judge, Col. Matthew McCall, to suspend court proceedings, the official said, to file an appeal of the decision. The defendants were expected to enter their guilty pleas next week, after McCall ruled Wednesday that Austin acted too late when he revoked the plea agreements, making them “valid and enforceable.”

The United States reached a plea deal in july after more than two years of negotiations between the government and the alleged plotters: Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, accused of masterminding the September 11, 2001, attacks, and conspirators Walid Bin ‘Attash and Mustafa Ahmed Adam al Hawsawi. The agreements would allow the men to avoid the death penalty by pleading guilty and being sentenced to life in prison. Prosecutors wrote in a letter at the time that the agreements were “the best path to finality and justice in this case.”

Austin abruptly revoked plea agreements in August, arguing that the responsibility for such an important decision “should fall on me.” He also took responsibility away from the convening authority of the military commissions, which runs the military tribunals at Guantánamo.

The plea deals faced a bipartisan backlash from lawmakers and some groups representing 9/11 victims who have pushed for the U.S. government to pursue the death penalty.

“While some may disagree, including in our own community, I do not believe the Biden administration should have worked to close these deals in the first place,” Brett Eagleson, president of 9/11 Justice, said in a statement provided to CNN. earlier this week. “It does nothing to ease our pain (or) shut us down. No one has heard what we really want/need and that is closure.”

Meanwhile, the American Civil Liberties Union praised Wednesday’s ruling, saying it allowed the case to move forward.

“As a nation, we must move forward with the guilty plea process and a sentencing hearing that aims to give victims’ families answers to their questions,” ACLU Executive Director Anthony Romero said in a statement. “They deserve transparency and firmness about the events that ended the lives of their loved ones.”

The case has been stalled over the two decades since Mohammed’s capture in Pakistan in 2003 for his alleged involvement in the terrorist attacks. For years, the United States tried to determine how to handle the issue of torture used against Mohammed and others in secret CIA prisons in the 2000s, delaying the military trial. The issue raised a legal issue for prosecutors over whether evidence obtained through torture was admissible in court.

The trial was due to begin on January 11, 2021, but delays caused by the resignation of two judges and the Covid-19 pandemic pushed the date back again. Negotiations on plea deals began in March 2022.

CNN’s Kaanita Iyer, Oren Liebermann, Lauren del Valle and Evan Perez contributed to this report.

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