Military judge sets June 2028 trial for accused 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed

The U.S. military and successive administrations have struggled for more than two decades to bring to justice the man charged with planning one of the deadliest attacks ever on the United States.

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A US Air Force judge on Wednesday ordered Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the accused mastermind of the 9/11 attacks, and three co-defendants to go on trial before a military tribunal in June 2028.

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The appellate decision reversed decisions of a military judge and the US Court of Military Commission Review in support of the plea deal.

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The agreement had been offered last year and accepted by the official who oversees the Pentagon's Guantanamo war court, only to be revoked last August by then-Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin amid criticism of the deal from Republican lawmakers.

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Under Schrama's 11-page order, Mohammed and three co-defendants Walid Muhammad Salih Mubarak bin 'Atash, Mustafa Ahmed Adam al Hawsawi, and Ali Abdul Aziz Ali will stand trial starting on June 5, 2028.

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The trial ends with a sentencing phase.

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Mohammed remains the most well-known inmate at the Guantanamo detention facility, which was set up in 2002 by then-US president George W. Bush to house foreign militant suspects following the September 11, 2001, attacks.

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Alleged 9/11 terror attacks mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed will stand trial in June 2028, more than a quarter of a century after what the US government has called "the most egregious criminal act on American soil in modern history".

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Next month will mark 25 years since hijackers flew planes into the World Trade Center in New York City and the Pentagon in Virginia, while another flight they hijacked crashed in a field in Pennsylvania.

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Mohammed is accused of conceiving the idea of training pilots to fly commercial planes into buildings and taking those plans to Osama Bin Laden, leader of al-Qaeda.

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Mohammed, a US-educated engineer, was captured along with al-Hawsawi in Pakistan in March 2003.

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But Austin was reportedly caught by surprise, and immediately attempted to revoke it.

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Mohammed, a US-educated engineer, was captured along with al-Hawsawi in Pakistan in March 2003.

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About 15 prisoners are still detained there.

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The military prison in Guantanamo Bay opened six months after the attacks.

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The US used Guantanamo, an isolated naval base, to hold militants captured during the "War on Terror" that followed the September 11 attacks in a bid to keep the defendants from claiming rights under US law.

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The US used Guantanamo, an isolated naval base, to hold militants captured during the "War on Terror" that followed the September 11 attacks in a bid to keep the defendants from claiming rights under US law.

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Mohammed was considered one of Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden's top lieutenants before he was captured in March 2003 in Pakistan.

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The US used Guantanamo, an isolated naval base, to hold militants captured during the "War on Terror" that followed the September 11 attacks in a bid to keep the defendants from claiming rights under US law.

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Mohammed faces trial alongside three alleged accomplices - Walid bin Attash, Ali Abdul Aziz Ali and Mustafa al-Hawsawi - who are accused of helping organise or facilitate the attacks.

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A key legal issue has been whether the defendants can receive a fair trial after being tortured in CIA custody.

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The plea deal would have avoided some of those disputes.

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The facility held roughly 800 prisoners at its peak, but they have since slowly been sent to other countries.

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The facility held roughly 800 prisoners at its peak, but they have since slowly been sent to other countries.

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A small fraction of that number remain.

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A divided federal appeals court in Washington, D.C., ruled in 2025 that then-Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin had the authority to withdraw from plea agreements that would have allowed Mohammed and two co-defendants to plead guilty in exchange for sentences of life in prison without parole, potentially taking the death penalty off the table.

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The D.C. Circuit ruled 2-1 that Austin acted within his legal authority when he withdrew the agreements.

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The defendants may choose to defer their opening statements until prosecutors have finished presenting their case.

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Once the prosecution rests, the defendants will have 14 days to seek a finding of not guilty under the Rules for Military Commissions.

The prosecution would then have 14 days to respond to such a motion, followed by seven days for the defendant to reply.

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A fourth hijacked plane, United Airlines Flight 93, crashed in Pennsylvania.

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Mohammed, a Pakistani national, is accused of spearheading the Sept. 11, 2001, plot in which hijackers crashed commercial airliners into the World Trade Center and Pentagon.

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Among the biggest issues are the confessions gotten from the men after they were detained in CIA prisons where torture, abuse and isolation were used.

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In a ruling that came just weeks before the 25th anniversary of the terrorist attack that brought down the World Trade Center's Twin Towers in New York City and killed nearly 3,000 people, Judge Lt Col Michael Schrama issued an order Wednesday, for the trial to begin on 5 June 2028.

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The prosecution has also relied on national security privilege to keep important details from defense attorneys, provoking questions about fairness, according to the New York Times.

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Schrama is the fifth military judge to be appointed since the 9/11 military commission arraigned the defendants in 2012.

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Walid bin Attash is accused of operating the training camp in Afghanistan.

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Ammar al-Baluchi, Mohammed's nephew, allegedly helped fund the operation and enrolled hijackers in flight school.

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Mustafa Ahmad al-Hawsawi, a Saudi man, is accused of supplying cash, credit cards and clothing for those involved in the plot.

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Ramzi bin al-Shibh, a Yemeni man accused of aiding attackers by organizing logistics, was later found to be mentally incompetent to stand trial, due to post-traumatic stress disorder caused by the US military's "enhanced interrogations".

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Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, and two other defendants, Walid bin Attash and Mustafa al-Hawsawi, have petitioned the US supreme court to rescind a 2024 decision from Lloyd J Austin III, then defense secretary, to block a plea deal that would have allowed them to serve life terms in prison rather than face a death penalty trial.

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The four other men are facing the death penalty, in what is widely considered one of the most complex capital cases.

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Five men were initially brought to court at Guantánamo Bay in 2008.

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Ramzi bin al-Shibh, a Yemeni man accused of aiding attackers by organizing logistics, was later found to be mentally incompetent to stand trial, due to post-traumatic stress disorder caused by the US military's "enhanced interrogations".

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Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, and two other defendants, Walid bin Attash and Mustafa al-Hawsawi, have petitioned the US supreme court to rescind a 2024 decision from Lloyd J Austin III, then defense secretary, to block a plea deal that would have allowed them to serve life terms in prison rather than face a death penalty trial.

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His case is being handled separately as a result.

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But it was heavily criticized by victims' family members and advocates who have spent decades waiting for justice.

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Dozens of pre-trial hearings have already come and gone over the years, without resolution.

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Terry Strada, the leader of the group 9/11 Families United and a widow who lost her husband in the attacks, has long pushed for the men to face trial, despite whatever legal hurdles remain.

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Terry Strada, the leader of the group 9/11 Families United and a widow who lost her husband in the attacks, has long pushed for the men to face trial, despite whatever legal hurdles remain.

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Mohammed was charged and arraigned in 2008 with war crimes and murder in connection with the nearly 3,000 people who died in the 9/11 attacks.

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This March 1, 2003, file photo obtained by the Associated Press shows Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the alleged Sept. 11 mastermind, shortly after his capture during a raid in Pakistan.

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The road to prosecute Mohammed and other conspirators has dragged on for years, with the Obama-era military commissions system being tested for the first time — at times leading to lengthy challenges to its rules.

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A Senate report from 2014 found that the CIA had used what it called "enhanced interrogation techniques" against Mohammed and other conspirators, including waterboarding Mohammed 183 times in what was described as "a series of near-drownings."

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Mohammed is being tried alongside three other men accused of orchestrating the Sept. 11 attacks that destroyed the twin towers of New York City's World Trade Center, killing 2,753 people and ushering in two decades to U.S.-led wars and military operations in Afghanistan and the Middle East.

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The suspects have been charged with a slew of offenses, including conspiracy, hijacking or hazarding an aircraft and murder.

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Mohammed is being tried alongside three other men accused of orchestrating the Sept. 11 attacks that destroyed the twin towers of New York City's World Trade Center, killing 2,753 people and ushering in two decades to U.S.-led wars and military operations in Afghanistan and the Middle East.

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