WASHINGTON, Feb 18: The nephew of the alleged mastermind of the September 11 attacks does not deserve the death penalty, his attorneys argue in court documents filed on Friday.

Ali Abdul Aziz Ali is accused of helping to plot the 9/11 attacks against the US. However, James Connell, one of his attorneys, told AFP that Aziz Ali, a Pakistani, played a “relatively minor role in the conspiracy” that “would not justify the death penalty under the US standards”.

Aziz Ali, also known as Amar Al Baluchi, is the nephew of alleged 9/11 attacks mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and a cousin of Ramzi Yousef, who set a bomb that detonated in the basement of the World Trade Centre in 1993.

“There are strict rules in the US to whom the death penalty can apply,” Mr Connell said. “It only can apply to people who were either masterminds of plots or actually carried out a killing, and our argument is Mr Al Baluchi doesn’t fall in either of those categories so he’s not eligible for the death penalty, even under military law.”