9/11 Mastermind's Trial Date Set as 25th Anniversary Nears
A military judge has set a June 2028 trial date for Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the man accused of masterminding the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, ending a years-long process of legal disputes and delays as the 25th anniversary of the attacks approaches.
Air Force Lt. Col. Michael Schrama issued the ruling Wednesday, Aug. 26, setting the trial to begin June 5, 2028, at the U.S. Navy base in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. Mohammed is charged alongside three alleged co-conspirators: Walid bin Attash, Ali Abdul Aziz Ali and Mustafa al-Hawsawi. Prosecutors had originally requested a January 2027 start date, but defense attorneys argued that timeline was unrealistic, a position the judge ultimately agreed with.
Why the Case Has Dragged On for Decades
Mohammed, who was born in Kuwait and attended college in the United States during the 1980s, was captured in Pakistan in 2003 and has been held at Guantánamo Bay since 2006. He has previously said he planned the Sept. 11 operation "from A to Z," according to the BBC, and is accused of developing the idea of training hijackers to fly commercial aircraft into buildings before presenting the plan to al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden.
The case has been one of the longest-running and most legally complicated in U.S. history, repeatedly stalled by disputes over classified evidence and the treatment of the defendants in CIA custody before their transfer to Guantánamo. A military appeals court has separately weighed a lower court's decision to suppress a confession from co-defendant Ammar al-Baluchi after finding it was obtained through torture, a ruling that continues to work its way through the appeals process and factors into the newly set timeline.
A Reversed Plea Deal Added to the Delays
The case took another turn after a proposed plea agreement, one that would have allowed Mohammed to plead guilty in exchange for avoiding the death penalty, was revoked under the Biden administration following backlash from some 9/11 victims' families and lawmakers who opposed sparing him from potential execution. A split federal appeals court later threw out that agreement entirely, clearing the way for the case to move back toward trial.
Even with Wednesday's ruling, the 2028 date isn't guaranteed. Schrama's order describes it as a provisional deadline contingent on both sides meeting a series of pretrial milestones, and legal experts note that similar dates set in the case's history have slipped before.
What Happened on Sept. 11, 2001
Members of al-Qaida hijacked four commercial airplanes on Sept. 11, 2001, flying two into the World Trade Center towers in New York City, one into the Pentagon, and a fourth into a field in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, after passengers attempted to retake control of the aircraft. The attacks killed nearly 3,000 people. The 25th anniversary of the attacks falls next month.
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