Accused 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed to face trial in June 2028

A US Air Force judge on Wednesday set June 2028 for the military tribunal trial of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, accused of masterminding the September 11, 2001 attacks, and three co-defendants.

The scheduling order, issued by Air Force Lieutenant Colonel Michael Schrama, represents another step in a prosecution that has been stalled for nearly two decades by prolonged legal disputes over the four Guantanamo Bay detainees.

The case was further complicated last month when a US appeals court blocked Mohammed and two co-defendants from entering guilty pleas under agreements that would have removed the possibility of death sentences.

The ruling overturned decisions by both a military judge and the US Court of Military Commission Review that had upheld the plea agreements.

The deals were reached last year and approved by the official overseeing the Pentagon’s Guantanamo military commissions. However, then-Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin withdrew his approval in August after the agreements drew strong criticism from Republican lawmakers.

Under Schrama’s 11-page order, Mohammed and three co-defendants, Walid Muhammad Salih Mubarak bin ‘Atash, Mustafa Ahmed Adam al Hawsawi, and Ali Abdul Aziz Ali, will stand trial starting on June 5, 2028.

The proceedings open with selection of a panel consisting entirely of service members who will act as the jury to hear the case according to rules of military justice. Opening statements will commence 30 calendar days after the panel is seated, followed by presentation of the prosecution’s evidence, after which the defendants may file motions for findings of not guilty.

The order gives both sides opportunities to argue those motions and rebut one another, and for prosecutors to reopen their case. The defense presents its principal evidence starting 60 calendar days after the prosecution concludes its case.

The trial ends with a sentencing phase.

Schrama rejected the prosecutors’ proposal to open the trial in January 2027, saying that would leave too little time for the “resolution of pretrial evidentiary and compliance motions.”

Mohammed remains the most well-known inmate at the Guantanamo detention facility, which was set up in 2002 by then-U.S. President George W. Bush to house foreign militant suspects following the September 11, 2001, attacks.

He is accused of orchestrating the plot to fly hijacked passenger jetliners into the World Trade Center in New York City and into the Pentagon. The 9/11 attacks killed nearly 3,000 people.