A military judge in Washington, D.C., announced Wednesday that the trial of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed – the man accused of directing the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks – will commence in June 2028. The decision pushes the start date about a year and a half later than the January 2027 date prosecutors had sought.
Who is on trial
Mohammed will be tried alongside three other alleged conspirators: Walid bin Attash, Ali Abdul Aziz Ali, and Mustafa Ahmed al‑Hawsawi. All four are charged with war crimes and murder for their roles in the plot that killed nearly 3,000 people when hijacked planes were flown into the World Trade Center towers, the Pentagon, and a field in Pennsylvania.
Background of the case
Mohammed was captured in Pakistan in 2003 and transferred to the U.S. naval base at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, in 2006, where he has remained in detention. He was first charged and arraigned in 2008. The legal process has been prolonged by a series of procedural challenges, including a split federal appeals court decision last summer that rejected a proposed plea agreement that would have spared him the death penalty.
Defense attorneys have argued that the government’s handling of the case has been delayed by efforts to conceal details of the “enhanced interrogation techniques” used by the CIA on detainees before they were moved to Guantánamo. A 2014 Senate report documented that Mohammed was water‑boarded 183 times, a practice described as a series of near‑drownings.
Implications
The upcoming trial will be the first major terrorism case heard by the military commissions system created during the Obama administration. Observers note that the schedule reflects the Trump administration’s commitment to seeing high‑profile national‑security cases proceed to resolution, while also underscoring the ongoing legal complexities of the military commission process.
Families of the nearly 3,000 victims, as well as the broader public, are watching closely for a transparent and accountable proceeding that honors the memory of those who perished on that tragic day.
Original reporting: NBC Connecticut — read the source article.
