Trial date set for alleged 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed

A military judge has set the trial date for alleged September 11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed to commence in June 2028, according to reports. The proceedings will be held at the United States naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Initially, prosecutors aimed for a start date in January 2027, but the judge delayed the timeline to accommodate intricate pretrial motions.

The trial will involve Mohammed alongside three co-accused men: Walid bin Attash, Ali Abdul Aziz Ali, and Mustafa al-Hawsawi. Federal authorities describe the 2001 attacks as "the most egregious criminal act on American soil in modern history," with hijackers crashing planes into the World Trade Center in New York City, the Pentagon in Virginia, and a fourth aircraft into a field in Pennsylvania, resulting in approximately 3,000 deaths.

Mohammed is accused of orchestrating the entire plot, having developed the concept of crashing planes into buildings and presenting the plans to al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden. He was captured in Pakistan in March 2003 and transferred to Guantanamo Bay in September 2006. Legal proceedings have faced significant delays, with a Senate report from 2014 documenting the use of harmful interrogation techniques against Mohammed and other suspects.

An overturned plea agreement, which would have allowed Mohammed to plead guilty in exchange for a life sentence without parole, was repudiated by the current administration. The trial's success hinges on meeting strict legal benchmarks, and further delays are possible if pretrial disputes persist.