Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the alleged mastermind of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, is scheduled to stand trial beginning in June 2028, a military judge ruled Wednesday.
Mohammed will be tried alongside three other men accused of conspiring in the attacks: Walid bin Attash, Ali Abdul Aziz Ali and Mustafa Ahmed al-Hawsawi.
Mohammed is accused of organizing the plot in which hijacked commercial aircraft were flown into New York’s World Trade Center and the Pentagon on September 11, 2001. A fourth hijacked plane crashed in a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania, after passengers and crew members fought back.
Mohammed has been held at the U.S. naval base at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, since 2006.
Air Force Lt. Col. Michael Schrama, the military commissions judge overseeing the case, rejected prosecutors’ request to begin the trial in January 2027. Instead, he set the proceedings for approximately 18 months later, in June 2028.
The decision adds another chapter to the lengthy legal proceedings surrounding the 9/11 case, which have faced repeated delays over questions involving evidence, interrogation methods, legal procedures and the possibility of capital punishment.
The new trial date comes after a divided federal appeals court last year rejected a proposed plea agreement that would have allowed Mohammed to plead guilty in exchange for removing the possibility of a death sentence.
With the plea deal no longer in place, Mohammed and his co-defendants are now expected to face a full military trial more than 26 years after the attacks.
