WASHINGTON — A US military judge on Wednesday set a summer 2028 trial date for Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and three others accused of plotting the 9/11 attacks, more than a quarter century after what the US government has called “the most egregious criminal act on American soil in modern history”.Air Force Lt. Col. Michael A. Schrama ruled the trial would start in two years because a 2027 date sought by prosecutors was too soon.The trial is scheduled to begin June 5, 2028, about 18 months later than the January 2027 start that prosecutors had requested. The additional time is needed to resolve pretrial disputes, including disagreements about what evidence can be presented at trial, Schrama wrote in his ruling.Alleged accomplices Walid bin Attash, Ali Abdul Aziz Ali and Mustafa al-Hawsawi were listed in the court document.The US military and successive administrations have struggled for more than two decades to bring to justice the man charged with planning one of the deadliest attacks ever on the United States.Mohammed had reached a plea deal where he would admit guilt in exchange for avoiding a death-penalty trial, but a federal appeals court threw out the agreement last summer. Arrested in 2003, he has been held at Guantanamo Bay since September 2006.Mohammed has previously said he planned 2001’s “9/11 operation from A-to-Z”.Next month will mark 25 years since hijackers flew planes into the World Trade Center in New York City and the Pentagon in Virginia, while another flight they hijacked crashed in a field in Pennsylvania. About 3,000 people died in the attacks on September 11,2001.Mohammed is accused of conceiving the idea of training pilots to fly commercial planes into buildings and taking those plans to al-Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden.Mohammed, a US-educated engineer, was captured along with al-Hawsawi in Pakistan in March 2003.The rejected plea deal, which would have given Mohammed a life sentence without possibility of parole, was reached after two years of negotiation and signed by an official appointed by then-Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin.But Austin was reportedly caught by surprise and immediately attempted to revoke it.The 2028 trial depends on the case meeting deadlines and milestones along the way and it could again be delayed. A trial was previously scheduled in 2021 but later canceled.The military prison in Guantanamo Bay opened six months after the 9/11 attacks. About 15 prisoners are still detained there.WASHINGTON — A US military judge on Wednesday set a summer 2028 trial date for Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and three others accused of plotting the 9/11 attacks, more than a quarter century after what the US government has called “the most egregious criminal act on American soil in modern history”.Air Force Lt. Col. Michael A. Schrama ruled the trial would start in two years because a 2027 date sought by prosecutors was too soon.The trial is scheduled to begin June 5, 2028, about 18 months later than the January 2027 start that prosecutors had requested. The additional time is needed to resolve pretrial disputes, including disagreements about what evidence can be presented at trial, Schrama wrote in his ruling.Alleged accomplices Walid bin Attash, Ali Abdul Aziz Ali and Mustafa al-Hawsawi were listed in the court document.The US military and successive administrations have struggled for more than two decades to bring to justice the man charged with planning one of the deadliest attacks ever on the United States.Mohammed had reached a plea deal where he would admit guilt in exchange for avoiding a death-penalty trial, but a federal appeals court threw out the agreement last summer. Arrested in 2003, he has been held at Guantanamo Bay since September 2006.Mohammed has previously said he planned 2001’s “9/11 operation from A-to-Z”.Next month will mark 25 years since hijackers flew planes into the World Trade Center in New York City and the Pentagon in Virginia, while another flight they hijacked crashed in a field in Pennsylvania. About 3,000 people died in the attacks on September 11,2001.Mohammed is accused of conceiving the idea of training pilots to fly commercial planes into buildings and taking those plans to al-Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden.Mohammed, a US-educated engineer, was captured along with al-Hawsawi in Pakistan in March 2003.The rejected plea deal, which would have given Mohammed a life sentence without possibility of parole, was reached after two years of negotiation and signed by an official appointed by then-Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin.But Austin was reportedly caught by surprise and immediately attempted to revoke it.The 2028 trial depends on the case meeting deadlines and milestones along the way and it could again be delayed. A trial was previously scheduled in 2021 but later canceled.The military prison in Guantanamo Bay opened six months after the 9/11 attacks. About 15 prisoners are still detained there.
Alleged 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed to stand trial in June 2028
