Alleged 9/11 mastermind to face trial in 2028
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A US military judge on Wednesday set a June 5, 2028, trial date for Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the alleged mastermind of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, and three co-defendants.
The ruling by Air Force Lt. Col. Michael A. Schrama comes nearly 25 years after the attacks that killed almost 3,000 people and more than two decades after Mohammed’s capture.
Prosecutors had sought a January 2027 start, but Schrama ruled that additional time was required.
“A realistic trial date must account for the hearing and resolution of pretrial evidentiary and compliance motions,” he wrote.
The order establishes milestones and deadlines, which he described as “the overarching scaffolding” leading to trial on the merits.
Mohammed, a Pakistani national long held at the US naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, was captured in Pakistan in 2003 and transferred to Guantanamo in 2006.
He is accused of developing and directing the plot in which hijacked airliners struck the World Trade Center and the Pentagon; a fourth plane crashed in a Pennsylvania field.
He faces trial alongside Walid bin Attash, Ali Abdul Aziz Ali (also known as Ammar al-Baluchi) and Mustafa al-Hawsawi. The four are among the last detainees remaining at Guantanamo and face potential death sentences if convicted of war crimes and murder related to the attacks.
The case has been plagued by repeated delays. A trial was previously set for 2021 but was canceled.
Last year a federal appeals court threw out a plea agreement that would have allowed Mohammed and two co-defendants to plead guilty in exchange for life sentences without parole, removing the death penalty from consideration.
Central disputes involve evidence obtained after the defendants were held in CIA black sites, where harsh interrogation methods were used.
Schrama is still addressing motions to suppress certain confessions and statements.
Mohammed himself told a 2007 tribunal: “I was responsible for the 9/11 operation, from A to Z.”
The 2028 date remains provisional and could slip further if pretrial deadlines are missed.
