A US Air Force judge has set the long-delayed trial of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the accused mastermind of the September 11 attacks, and three co-defendants for June 2028. The military tribunal will take place at Guantanamo Bay under the rules of military justice.
Air Force Lieutenant Colonel Michael Schrama issued the 11-page scheduling order on Wednesday. The trial is scheduled to begin on June 5, 2028. Proceedings will open with the selection of a panel made up entirely of service members who will serve as the jury. Opening statements will start 30 days after the panel is seated. The prosecution will then present its evidence, followed by possible defence motions for findings of not guilty. The defence case is expected to begin 60 days after the prosecution finishes. A sentencing phase will close the trial.
The four defendants face charges linked to the attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people on September 11, 2001. Khalid Sheikh Mohammed is accused of planning the plot that used hijacked passenger planes to strike the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon. His co-defendants are Walid bin Attash, Mustafa al Hawsawi, and Ali Abdul Aziz Ali.
This decision marks another step in a prosecution that has faced more than two decades of legal delays. Last month a US appeals court blocked plea deals that would have allowed Mohammed and two co-defendants to plead guilty in exchange for avoiding the death penalty. Those deals had been accepted by the official overseeing the Guantanamo court but were later revoked by then-Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin after criticism from Republican lawmakers.
Judge Schrama rejected a prosecution request to start the trial in January 2027. He said that date would not leave enough time to resolve important pretrial motions on evidence and compliance issues.
Mohammed remains the best-known detainee at the Guantanamo facility, which was established in 2002. The case has become a symbol of the long and complicated effort to bring the accused 9/11 plotters to justice through the military commission system. With the new schedule now in place, both sides will prepare for a trial that is expected to last many months once it finally begins in 2028.
