A military judge from the U.S. air force instructed on Wednesday that Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, who is alleged to be the mastermind behind the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, will be tried by a military tribunal in June 2028, alongside three other defendants.
This scheduling order issued by Lt. Col. Michael Schrama represents a significant development in a military prosecution that has faced two decades of legal standstill concerning the four detainees detained at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
Recently, a U.S. appeals court denied the requests of Mohammed and two co-defendants—Walid Muhammad Salih Mubarak bin ‘Atash and Mustafa Ahmed Adam al Hawsawi—to enter guilty pleas under agreements that would have prevented the death penalty.
The appellate ruling overturned the decisions made by a military judge and the U.S. Court of Military Commission Review that had supported the plea arrangement.
This agreement was initially proposed last year and approved by the official responsible for overseeing the Pentagon’s Guantanamo war court, but was rescinded in 2024 by Lloyd Austin, the defense secretary at that time under President Joe Biden. Some Republican lawmakers expressed fury over the possibility of a deal that would allow him to avoid a death sentence if found guilty.
According to Schrama’s 11-page ruling, Mohammed and his three co-defendants, which also includes Ali Abdul Aziz Ali, are scheduled to stand trial beginning on June 5, 2028. A fifth individual involved in the case was declared unfit for trial due to severe mental illness.
Schrama dismissed the prosecutors’ suggestion to commence the trial in January 2027, stating that it would not allow sufficient time for the “resolution of pretrial evidentiary and compliance motions.”
This marks the fifth military judge overseeing the case since Mohammed’s capture in Pakistan in 2003. Although a trial seemed imminent in 2021, it was postponed due to the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The admissibility of certain evidence has been a contentious issue, as Mohammed and others have experienced torture at CIA detention facilities.
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The September 11 attacks resulted in nearly 3,000 fatalities, including 26 citizens from Canada. Al-Qaeda, which had been labeled a terrorist organization by the U.S. since 1999, claimed responsibility for these attacks.
Mohammed is accused of orchestrating the scheme to crash hijacked airliners into the World Trade Center in New York City and the Pentagon, while another plane went down in rural Pennsylvania.
He is known as the most prominent inmate at Guantanamo’s detention facility, established to house foreign militant suspects in the aftermath of the attacks. Hundreds were held there, but currently, only 15 remain following various convictions and repatriations to their home countries.
Additionally, Mohammed’s nephew, Ramzi Yousef, is serving time in Colorado after being convicted for his role in the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center, which resulted in the deaths of six individuals.
