A U.S. air force judge has set a trial date for Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the alleged mastermind behind the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks in the United States. The trial, scheduled for June 2028, will involve Mohammed and three co-defendants facing a military tribunal.
The order issued by Lt.-Col. Michael Schrama of the air force represents a significant step in a legal process that has been plagued by challenges for over two decades concerning the four detainees held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Recently, a U.S. appeals court rejected plea agreements that would have spared Mohammed and two co-defendants, Walid Muhammad Salih Mubarak bin ‘Atash and Mustafa Ahmed Adam al Hawsawi, from the death penalty, overturning previous decisions made by a military judge and the U.S. Court of Military Commission Review.
Despite an agreement accepted by the official overseeing the Guantanamo war court in the past, the deal was revoked in 2024 by then-Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, citing concerns raised by some Republican lawmakers over the possibility of sparing Mohammed’s life if convicted. The trial, set to begin on June 5, 2028, will also involve Ali Abdul Aziz Ali as one of the co-defendants, while a fifth individual was deemed unfit to stand trial due to mental health issues.
Schrama dismissed prosecutors’ proposal to start the trial in January 2027, emphasizing the need for sufficient time to address pretrial motions and evidentiary matters. This marks the fifth military judge overseeing the case since Mohammed’s capture in 2003, with previous attempts to hold a trial disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Legal disputes have arisen over the admissibility of evidence, particularly concerning the torture experienced by Mohammed and other detainees at CIA detention sites. The 9/11 attacks, which claimed nearly 3,000 lives, including 26 Canadian citizens, were attributed to Al-Qaeda, designated as a terrorist organization by the U.S. in 1999.
Mohammed is accused of planning the attacks involving hijacked planes crashing into the World Trade Center in New York City and the Pentagon, with another aircraft crashing in rural Pennsylvania. He remains a prominent detainee at Guantanamo Bay, where foreign militant suspects were initially detained post-9/11. While the facility housed hundreds of individuals, only 15 detainees are currently reported to remain following convictions and repatriations to their home countries.
Notably, Mohammed’s nephew, Ramzi Yousef, is serving a sentence in Colorado for his role in orchestrating the 1993 bombing at the World Trade Center, which resulted in six fatalities.
