US judge sets June 5, 2028, trial date for Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and three alleged 9/11 accomplices, 18 months later than prosecutors sought.
A US military judge on Wednesday set June 5, 2028, as the trial date for Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and three other men accused of plotting the September 11, 2001, attacks in the United States. The date is 18 months later than the January 2027 trial schedule sought by prosecutors.
In his ruling, Air Force Lt Col Michael A Schrama said the additional time was needed to resolve pretrial disputes, including disagreements over what evidence can be presented during the case. The trial will go ahead only if the case meets the required deadlines and milestones, and it could still face another delay.
The case has remained unresolved for more than two decades as the US military and successive administrations have struggled to bring to trial the man accused of planning one of the deadliest attacks ever on the United States. A previous trial date had been set for 2021 but was later cancelled.
Mohammed is accused of developing and directing the plot to crash hijacked airliners into the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon. Another of the hijacked planes crashed into a field in Pennsylvania.
He will stand trial with three alleged accomplices: Walid bin Attash, Ali Abdul Aziz Ali and Mustafa al-Hawsawi.
The four men are among the last detainees still held at the US military base at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba. Last year, a federal appeals court threw out an agreement that would have allowed Mohammed to plead guilty in a deal that would have spared him the risk of execution for al-Qaida’s 2001 attacks.
The agreement called for life sentences without parole for Mohammed and two of his co-defendants. It also would have required the men to answer lingering questions that victims’ families still have about the attacks. However, after negotiating the deal for two years, former President Joe Biden’s administration repudiated it.
For now, the military court has fixed a summer 2028 trial date while key pretrial disputes remain unresolved in a case that has already seen repeated delays over the years.
