GUANTÁNAMO BAY — Air Force Lt. Col. Michael Schrama set the trial date for June 5, 2028, for Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four co-defendants at Guantánamo Bay. The military judge rejected a January 2027 trial start date that prosecutors had proposed for the case.

Khalid Sheikh Mohammed will be prosecuted alongside Walid bin Attash, Ali Abdul Aziz Ali, and Mustafa Ahmed al-Hawsawi. The additional time before the 2028 trial is needed to resolve pretrial disputes, including disagreements about what evidence can be presented at trial.

Defense lawyers have argued that delays result from government efforts to hide details of torture used against detainees at secret CIA prisons before their transfer to Guantánamo Bay. A 2014 Senate report found that the CIA used enhanced interrogation techniques, including waterboarding Khalid Sheikh Mohammed 183 times.

The proceedings follow the collapse of a negotiated resolution in which the Biden administration repudiated the plea agreement after negotiating it for two years. A federal appeals court threw out a potential plea agreement that would have allowed Khalid Sheikh Mohammed to plead guilty in exchange for sparing him the risk of execution.

Why It Matters

The scheduling decision extends a legal process that began with charges filed in 2008 regarding war crimes and murder connected to nearly 3,000 deaths. Khalid Sheikh Mohammed has been held at the U.S. naval base at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, since 2006, following his capture in Pakistan in 2003.

This timeline reflects a pattern of interruptions, as a trial for Khalid Sheikh Mohammed was previously scheduled in 2021 but was later canceled. The case involves accusations that Mohammed orchestrated the plot to crash hijacked planes into the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon on Sept. 11, 2001, while a fourth plane crashed in a field in Pennsylvania during the attacks.

Timeline

Khalid Sheikh Mohammed is accused of orchestrating the plot to crash hijacked planes into the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon on Sept. 11, 2001. A fourth plane crashed in a field in Pennsylvania during the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks. Khalid Sheikh Mohammed was captured in Pakistan in 2003.

Khalid Sheikh Mohammed has been held at the U.S. naval base at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, since 2006. Khalid Sheikh Mohammed was charged and arraigned in 2008 with war crimes and murder in connection with the nearly 3,000 deaths in the 9/11 attacks. On June 18, 2008, the District Court for the District of Columbia issued a memorandum opinion in Akosile v. Armed Forces Retirement Home, in which Judge Reggie B. Walton addressed an action brought by plaintiff Michael Akosile against his former employer.

A trial for Khalid Sheikh Mohammed was previously scheduled in 2021 but was later canceled.

What's New

Additional reporting indicates that the repudiated plea deal stipulated life sentences without parole for Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and two of his co-defendants.

Further details show that the repudiated plea deal would have obligated the defendants to answer any lingering questions that families of the victims have about the attacks. The Biden administration repudiated the plea agreement after negotiating it for two years.