9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed to stand trial in June 2028

Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the accused mastermind of the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States, and three co-defendants will face trial before a US military tribunal in June 2028, according to a scheduling order issued by a military judge.

U.S. Air Force Lt. Col. Michael Schrama ordered the trial to begin on June 5, 2028, the latest development in a case stalled by years of litigation involving the four men held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

9/11 trial scheduled after decades of legal delays

The defendants are Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, Walid Muhammad Salih Mubarak bin ‘Atash, Mustafa Ahmed Adam al Hawsawi and Ali Abdul Aziz Ali.

The trial will commence with the selection of a jury composed entirely of members of the military service who will serve as a jury under the rules of military justice. Opening statements are scheduled to begin 30 calendar days after the panel meeting.

Prosecutors will then present their evidence and then the defendants will have the opportunity to seek a finding of innocence. The order allows both sides to argue and respond to those motions and gives prosecutors an opportunity to reopen their case.

The defense will begin presenting its case-in-chief 60 calendar days after prosecutors close their case. The proceedings will eventually move to the sentencing phase.

Schrama rejected a motion to start the trial in January 2027, saying that date would not allow enough time to resolve pending pretrial evidence and compliance motions.

The plea deal was previously blocked

The latest trial schedule comes after a U.S. appeals court last month rejected efforts by Muhammad and two co-defendants to plead guilty to deals that would have spared them the death penalty.

The appeals ruling overturned earlier rulings by a military judge and the U.S. Court of Military Review that upheld the plea deals.

The deals were offered the previous year and accepted by the official overseeing the Pentagon’s military commission on Guantánamo. But then-Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin revoked the deals in August after criticism from Republican lawmakers.

Who is Khalid Sheikh Mohammed?

Mohammed is being held at the Guantánamo Bay detention facility, which was established by then-President George W. Bush in 2002 to hold suspected foreign militants after the 9/11 attacks.

He is accused of organizing a plot in which hijacked passenger planes were flown into the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon. Another hijacked plane crashes in Pennsylvania.

The 9/11 attacks killed nearly 3,000 people and became one of the deadliest terrorist attacks in US history.

The June 2028 trial date marks the next major step in a case that has remained unsolved for more than two decades.