A military judge of the U.S. Air Force has set a trial date for Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the alleged mastermind behind the September 11, 2001, attacks, along with three co-defendants. The trial is scheduled to take place before a military tribunal in June 2028, following years of legal challenges surrounding the detainees held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
Recently, an appeals court rejected a plea deal that would have spared Mohammed and two other defendants from the death penalty. This decision overturned previous rulings supporting the plea agreement. The plea deal, initially accepted by a Pentagon official overseeing the Guantanamo war court, was revoked in 2024 by then-Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, leading to backlash from some Republican lawmakers.
In an 11-page order, the judge, Lt.-Col. Michael Schrama, set the trial date for June 5, 2028, for Mohammed and his co-defendants. Another individual involved in the case was deemed mentally unfit to stand trial. Schrama dismissed the prosecution’s request to start the trial earlier, citing the need for sufficient time to address pretrial motions.
Since Mohammed’s capture in 2003, this marks the fifth military judge overseeing the case. Previous attempts to hold a trial were disrupted, including a planned 2021 trial delayed by the COVID-19 pandemic. The admissibility of evidence, particularly concerning torture at CIA detention facilities, has been a contentious issue in the legal proceedings.
The 9/11 attacks resulted in the deaths of nearly 3,000 individuals, including 26 Canadian citizens. Al-Qaeda claimed responsibility for the attacks, which involved hijacked planes crashing into the World Trade Center in New York City and the Pentagon, with another plane crashing in Pennsylvania.
Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, a prominent detainee at Guantanamo Bay, is accused of orchestrating the attacks. Following the September 11 events, Guantanamo became a detention site for foreign militant suspects, with only 15 detainees remaining currently after convictions and repatriations. Mohammed’s nephew, Ramzi Yousef, is serving a sentence in Colorado for his role in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing.