Accused 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and three co-defendants to stand trial in 2028

Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the man accused of masterminding the September 11, 2001, attacks in the United States, and three alleged co-conspirators are set to stand trial before a military tribunal in June 2028.

A U.S. Air Force judge, Lieutenant Colonel Michael Schrama, issued the trial-scheduling order on Wednesday, marking another development in a case that has faced more than two decades of legal delays.

Mohammed and the three co-defendants — Walid Muhammad Salih Mubarak bin ‘Atash, Mustafa Ahmed Adam al Hawsawi and Ali Abdul Aziz Ali — have been detained at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, for years in connection with the case.

The trial is scheduled to begin on June 5, 2028, with the selection of a military panel that will serve as the jury.

Opening statements are expected to begin 30 days after the panel is seated, followed by the prosecution presenting its evidence. The defence will then have an opportunity to present its case, before the proceedings move to sentencing.

The judge rejected a proposal by prosecutors to begin the trial in January 2027, saying more time was needed to resolve pretrial evidentiary and compliance matters.

The latest development comes after a U.S. appeals court last month blocked plea agreements that would have allowed Mohammed and two of his co-defendants to plead guilty while avoiding the death penalty.

The plea agreements had previously been accepted by the official overseeing the Pentagon’s Guantánamo military commissions but were later revoked by then-Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin following criticism from Republican lawmakers.

Mohammed is accused of orchestrating the plot to hijack passenger planes and crash them into the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon.

The September 11 attacks killed nearly 3,000 people and remain one of the deadliest terrorist attacks in U.S. history.

The Guantánamo Bay detention facility was established in 2002 by then-U.S. President George W. Bush to hold foreign militant suspects following the attacks.

If the current schedule holds, Mohammed and his co-defendants will face trial more than two decades after their detention.