Military judge schedules proceedings for accused plotter and three co-defendants, rejecting earlier start sought by prosecutors amid ongoing legal disputes.
A United States military judge has set June 5, 2028, as the trial date for Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the man accused of masterminding the September 11, 2001, attacks, and three co-defendants held at the Guantanamo Bay detention camp in Cuba.
Air Force Lieutenant Colonel Michael A. Schrama issued the scheduling order on Wednesday, more than two decades after Mohammed’s capture and nearly 25 years after the attacks that killed almost 3,000 people. The date is roughly 18 months later than the January 2027 start sought by prosecutors. Schrama said additional time was required to resolve pretrial issues, including disputes over what evidence may be presented.
Mohammed, a Pakistani national educated in the United States, has been held at Guantanamo since September 2006 after his arrest in Pakistan in 2003. He is charged with developing and directing the plot in which hijacked airliners were flown into the World Trade Center in New York, the Pentagon near Washington, and a field in Pennsylvania. He has previously claimed responsibility for planning the “9/11 operation from A to Z.”
Co-defendants and long-running case:
The trial will also include Walid bin Attash, Ali Abdul Aziz Ali (also known as Ammar al-Baluchi) and Mustafa al-Hawsawi. A fifth original defendant, Ramzi bin al-Shibh, was previously found incompetent to stand trial and his case was severed.
The four men face capital charges before a military commission at the US naval base. If convicted, they could be sentenced to death. The proceedings will begin with the selection of a panel of military officers who will serve as the jury under the rules of the military commissions system.
The case has been mired in delays for years. A trial was once scheduled for 2021 but was cancelled. Successive judges have grappled with complex pretrial litigation, much of it centred on the defendants’ treatment in CIA “black site” prisons, where they were subjected to enhanced interrogation techniques that the US government has acknowledged included waterboarding and other methods widely described as torture.
Plea deal collapse and unresolved issues:
Last year, Mohammed and two co-defendants reached a plea agreement under which they would have admitted guilt in exchange for life sentences without parole, thereby avoiding a death-penalty trial. The deal was accepted by a senior Pentagon official but later revoked by then-Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin. A federal appeals court subsequently blocked efforts to revive the agreement. The men have asked the US Supreme Court to review the rescission.
Schrama’s order notes that the June 2028 date remains provisional and depends on the parties meeting a series of procedural milestones. Key outstanding matters include rulings on whether statements obtained through coercive interrogation can be used as evidence. An earlier judge suppressed confessions from one defendant on those grounds; appeals and similar motions from the other defendants are still pending.
The military commissions at Guantanamo were established after the 2001 attacks to try foreign suspects for war crimes and terrorism-related offences. Critics have long argued that the system falls short of international fair-trial standards, while successive US administrations have defended it as necessary for national security cases involving classified information.
Families of the victims of the September 11 attacks have expressed frustration at the prolonged process. The scheduled trial date comes just weeks before the 25th anniversary of the attacks, yet it remains subject to further legal challenges and potential postponements.