Trial of Accused 9/11 Mastermind Set for June 2028

Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and three co-defendants will face trial before a US military tribunal in June 2028, more than two decades after the September 11, 2001, attacks.

US Air Force Lieutenant Colonel Michael Schrama ordered the proceedings to begin on June 5, 2028. The case will open with the selection of a panel made up entirely of service members, who will serve as the jury under military justice rules.

Schrama rejected prosecutors’ proposal to start the trial in January 2027. His 11-page order said that timetable would leave too little time to resolve pretrial evidentiary and compliance motions. Opening statements will begin 30 calendar days after the panel is seated. The prosecution will then present its evidence, followed by defense motions and the defense case.

The other defendants are Walid Muhammad Salih Mubarak bin ’Atash, Mustafa Ahmed Adam al Hawsawi and Ali Abdul Aziz Ali. Mohammed is accused of organizing the plot to hijack passenger aircraft and crash them into the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon. The attacks killed nearly 3,000 people.

The case has been held up by years of legal disputes involving the four detainees at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. A US appeals court last year blocked plea agreements for Mohammed and two co-defendants that would have spared them the death penalty. The agreements had been offered in 2024 and accepted by the official overseeing the Pentagon’s Guantanamo war court, before then-Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin revoked them in August that year after criticism from Republican lawmakers.

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Resolution of pretrial evidentiary and compliance motions.