After a quarter-century, 9/11 plotter to face trial in 2028

More than a quarter-century after the September 11, 2001 attacks, the trial of the main suspect accused of masterminding them remains stalled amid postponements and legal disputes. A US military judge has set a new date for the trial of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and three other defendants, for the summer of 2028.

The trial is scheduled to begin on June 5, 2028, 18 months after the January 2027 trial date requested by prosecutors. In his ruling, a US Air Force judge said the additional time was necessary to resolve pretrial disputes, including disagreements over what evidence can be presented during the trial.

For more than two decades, the US military and successive US administrations have struggled to bring the man accused of orchestrating one of the deadliest attacks in US history to justice.

The 2028 trial date depends on the case meeting the deadlines and procedural stages leading up to it, meaning it could be postponed again. A previous trial had been scheduled for 2021 before it was later canceled.

9/11 attacks plotter

Khalid Sheikh Mohammed is accused of devising and directing the plot, which involved hijacking passenger planes and crashing them into the World Trade Center towers and the Pentagon. Another hijacked plane crashed into a field in Pennsylvania. The attacks killed nearly 3,000 people.

He will stand trial alongside three other defendants accused of conspiring with him. The four defendants are among the last detainees being held at the US military base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

The Pakistani-born Sheikh Mohammed was one of the prominent aides to al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden before US authorities arrested him in Pakistan in March 2003.

Last year, a federal appeals court overturned a deal that would have allowed Sheikh Mohammed to plead guilty under an agreement that would have spared him the risk of execution for the attacks.

The agreement called for life sentences without the possibility of parole for Mohammed and two of his co-defendants. It would also have required the men to answer any remaining questions that the families of the attacks’ victims were seeking answers to. However, after two years of negotiations to reach the agreement, the administration of former US President Joe Biden withdrew from the deal.