By Theodore Brown-
A US military judge has ordered Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, (pictured) the alleged mastermind of the 11 September 2001 attacks, and three co-defendants to stand trial before a military tribunal at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, in June 2028, setting a new timetable for a prosecution that has been mired in legal disputes for more than two decades.
The scheduling order, issued by US Air Force Lieutenant Colonel Michael Schrama, directs thAe proceedings to begin on 5 June 2028. The decision marks the latest attempt to move the long-running case towards trial after years of pretrial litigation over evidence, legal procedures and plea agreements involving the four detainees.
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Mohammed, 61, is the best-known of the defendants and is accused of orchestrating the plot in which hijackers seized four passenger aircraft on 11 September 2001. Two of the planes were flown into New York City’s World Trade Center, while another struck the Pentagon. The fourth aircraft crashed in Pennsylvania after passengers attempted to intervene.
The latest timetable follows a major setback for the defendants last month, when a US appeals court refused to allow Mohammed and two co-defendants to plead guilty under agreements that would have removed the possibility of the death penalty. The appellate ruling overturned earlier decisions by a military judge and the US Court of Military Commission Review that had supported the plea arrangements.
The plea agreements had been reached the previous year and accepted by the official responsible for overseeing the Pentagon’s Guantanamo war court. However, the agreements became the subject of intense political opposition and were revoked in August by then-Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin, following criticism from Republican politicians.
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Under Lieutenant Colonel Schrama’s 11-page scheduling order, Mohammed will face trial alongside Walid Muhammad Salih Mubarak bin ‘Atash, Mustafa Ahmed Adam al-Hawsawi and Ali Abdul Aziz Ali. The proceedings will begin with the selection of a panel made up entirely of military service members, who will serve as the jury under the rules governing military commissions.
This photo of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed was released by the FBI shortly after the attacks
Opening statements are scheduled to begin 30 calendar days after the panel has been seated. Prosecutors will then present their evidence, after which the defence will have the opportunity to file motions seeking findings of not guilty. Both sides will be permitted to respond to those motions, while prosecutors may also be given an opportunity to reopen their case.
The defence’s principal presentation of evidence is scheduled to begin 60 calendar days after the prosecution concludes its case. The proceedings will ultimately move into a sentencing phase, bringing the trial to its conclusion if the case reaches that stage.
Lieutenant Colonel Schrama rejected a prosecution proposal to begin the trial in January 2027, finding that such a timetable would leave insufficient time to resolve outstanding pretrial evidentiary and compliance motions. The later date therefore reflects the continuing complexity of a case that has faced repeated procedural and legal obstacles.
The proceedings are taking place against the backdrop of Guantanamo Bay’s controversial history. The detention facility was established in 2002 under then-US President George W Bush to hold foreign militant suspects following the 11 September attacks. Its detainees and the military commission system created to prosecute some of them have remained at the centre of a prolonged legal and political debate.
More than 20 years after the attacks that transformed US national security policy and reshaped global politics, the case against Mohammed and his co-defendants remains unresolved. The June 2028 trial date offers a new path towards a courtroom reckoning, but the history of the prosecution means that further legal challenges could still determine whether the proceedings ultimately take place as scheduled.
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