More than 25 years after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks that claimed the lives of about 3,000 people, alleged mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed is set to face trial in June 2028.
A US military judge has ordered that Mohammed and three alleged co-conspirators stand trial from June 5, 2028, rejecting an earlier date in 2027 proposed by prosecutors.
The judge ruled that the prosecution’s proposed timeline would not provide sufficient time for preparations for the complex proceedings, which have been delayed for years by legal disputes and questions over the admissibility of evidence.
Mohammed has been held at the US detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, since 2006, after his capture in Pakistan in March 2003.
He has previously acknowledged responsibility for planning the 9/11 operation, claiming that he organised it “from A-to-Z.”
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US prosecutors allege that Mohammed developed the plan to hijack commercial airliners, train pilots to take control of the aircraft and crash them into prominent US buildings.
He is also accused of presenting the proposal to Osama bin Laden, then leader of al-Qaeda, who ultimately approved the operation.
Mohammed is scheduled to be tried alongside Walid bin Attash, Ali Abdul Aziz Ali and Mustafa al-Hawsawi, who are accused of playing various roles in the plot.
The case has been bogged down by years of pre-trial proceedings, with defence lawyers and prosecutors repeatedly battling over evidence, interrogation practices and other legal issues.
At one point, Mohammed and the other defendants reached a plea agreement that would have required them to plead guilty in exchange for avoiding a death-penalty trial.
Under the proposed arrangement, they would instead have received life imprisonment without the possibility of parole.
The agreement, however, was subsequently overturned following a ruling by a federal appeals court, allowing the US government to continue pursuing the case towards a full trial.
The September 11 attacks remain one of the deadliest terrorist attacks in US history. Hijackers seized control of four commercial aircraft.
Two planes were flown into New York’s World Trade Center, another struck the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia, while a fourth crashed in Pennsylvania after passengers attempted to overpower the hijackers.
About 3,000 people were killed in the attacks, which triggered far-reaching changes in US security and foreign policy and led to the US-led war against al-Qaeda and the Taliban in Afghanistan.
If the current schedule holds, the trial will begin nearly 27 years after the attacks, underscoring the extraordinary length and complexity of the legal process surrounding one of the most consequential terrorism cases in modern US history.