Military judge sets June 2028 trial date for accused 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed

Order and procedural schedule

Air Force Lieutenant Colonel Michael Schrama entered an 11-page scheduling order on August 26, 2026, directing Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and three co-defendants to stand trial before a military tribunal starting June 5, 2028. The co-defendants named in the order are Walid Muhammad Salih Mubarak bin 'Atash, Mustafa Ahmed Adam al Hawsawi, and Ali Abdul Aziz Ali. Prosecutors had requested a start date of January 2027, an 18-month earlier timeline that Schrama rejected as inadequate for the case workload.

The proceedings at Guantanamo Bay will commence with the selection of a panel of US military service members acting as the jury. Opening statements are scheduled to begin 30 calendar days after the panel is seated, followed by the presentation of the prosecution case. The defense will have the opportunity to file motions for findings of not guilty, with principal defense evidence scheduled to begin 60 calendar days after prosecutors conclude their presentation. The proceedings will conclude with a sentencing phase.

A realistic trial date must account for the hearing and resolution of pretrial evidentiary and compliance motions.

Collapse of the negotiated plea agreements

The trial order follows the breakdown of plea negotiations that had sought to resolve the long-stalled case without a capital trial. In 2024, Mohammed and two of his co-defendants reached agreements to plead guilty in exchange for life imprisonment without parole, avoiding the potential application of the death penalty. The proposed deals also included provisions requiring the defendants to answer questions submitted by families of the victims of the September 11 attacks.

The agreement was initially approved by the convening authority overseeing the Guantanamo military commissions. Days later, then-Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin revoked the agreement following criticism from Republican lawmakers. A federal appeals court subsequently upheld Austin's revocation and blocked the plea deals, returning the case to the military trial track.

Scope of charges and al-Qaeda background

US prosecutors allege that Mohammed served as the chief mastermind of the September 11, 2001, attacks, directing communications and financing for the plot that killed 2,977 people when hijacked airliners struck the World Trade Center, the Pentagon, and crashed in Pennsylvania. Mohammed faces 2,977 counts of murder, alongside charges of terrorism, hijacking, and attacking civilians, which are classified as war crimes.

Born in Kuwait in 1965, Mohammed earned a mechanical engineering degree from an American university in 1986 and worked for the government of Qatar before becoming a senior operative for al-Qaeda under Osama bin Laden. Intelligence officials also link him to earlier plots, including an unfulfilled early 1990s plan to bomb Pacific airliners, the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, the 2002 Bali bombings, and the killing of journalist Daniel Pearl.

Detention history and torture disputes

Mohammed was captured by US forces in Pakistan in March 2003 and held for three years across secret CIA detention sites, including facilities in Poland, where he was subjected to interrogation techniques documented as torture in a 2014 US Senate report. He was transferred in September 2006 to the Guantanamo Bay detention camp, a facility opened in 2002 by President George W. Bush that once held nearly 800 prisoners.

Legal disputes over the admissibility of confessions and evidence obtained during CIA interrogations have repeatedly delayed proceedings for two decades, including the cancellation of a previously scheduled 2021 trial date. The 2028 start date remains subject to potential revisions as military judges resolve ongoing motions regarding evidence admissibility.