A judge from the U.S. Air Force has set a trial date for Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the alleged mastermind behind the September 11, 2001, attacks, and three co-defendants to face a military tribunal in June 2028. This decision marks a significant development in the legal proceedings that have been stalled for twenty years for the detainees held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
Recently, a U.S. appeals court denied the opportunity for Mohammed and two of his co-defendants, Walid Muhammad Salih Mubarak bin ‘Atash and Mustafa Ahmed Adam al Hawsawi, to enter guilty pleas that would have avoided the death penalty. This decision overturned previous rulings supporting the plea agreement made by a military judge and the U.S. Court of Military Commission Review.
The plea deal, initially accepted in 2023 by the official overseeing the Pentagon’s Guantanamo war court, was revoked in 2024 by then-Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, under the administration of President Joe Biden. Some Republican lawmakers criticized the potential life-saving agreement if Mohammed was convicted.
According to the order issued by Lt.-Col. Michael Schrama, Mohammed and his co-defendants, including Ali Abdul Aziz Ali, are scheduled to stand trial on June 5, 2028. Another individual involved in the case was deemed unfit to stand trial due to mental illness.
Schrama dismissed prosecutors’ request to start the trial in January 2027, citing the need for time to resolve pretrial evidentiary matters. He is the fifth military judge to preside over the case since Mohammed’s capture in 2003.
The trial had been anticipated in 2021 but was postponed due to the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic. Legal disputes have arisen over the admissibility of certain evidence, particularly concerning the torture endured by Mohammed and others at CIA detention facilities.
The 9/11 attacks, which claimed nearly 3,000 lives, including 26 Canadians, were attributed to Al-Qaeda, designated a terrorist organization by the U.S. in 1999. Mohammed is accused of orchestrating the attacks on the World Trade Center in New York City and the Pentagon, with another plane crashing in Pennsylvania.
Mohammed, a prominent figure at Guantanamo’s detention facility, is among the few remaining detainees out of the hundreds initially housed there following the attacks. Notably, his nephew, Ramzi Yousef, is serving time in Colorado for his involvement in the 1993 bombing at the World Trade Center.
