9/11 Plot Trial Set for 2028 at Guantanamo Bay
Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and three co-defendants face death penalty charges, with legal proceedings ongoing since 2012.
Image: Eddie Pollard / AI
Carla Rooney
A U.S. military judge has scheduled a summer 2028 trial for Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and three others accused of plotting the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
The agreement would have spared Mohammed the risk of execution, stipulating life sentences without parole for him and two co-defendants. It further obligated the men to answer any lingering questions from victims' families about the 9/11 attacks.
Mohammed was arrested in 2003 and has been held at Guantanamo Bay since September 2006. The case has been ongoing since the defendants were arraigned in 2012, with Lieutenant Colonel Michael Schrama serving as the fifth judge assigned to the proceedings.
9/11 operation from A-to-Z.
Mohammed previously claimed he planned 2001's "9/11 operation from A-to-Z." He is accused of conceiving the idea of training pilots to fly commercial planes into buildings, then taking those plans to Osama Bin Laden.
The four facing trial are accused of involvement in the 9/11 terrorist attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people. A plea deal that would have allowed life sentences instead of the death penalty was reportedly blocked in 2024 by then-Defense Secretary Lloyd J Austin III.
This rejected plea deal, which would have given Mohammed a life sentence without possibility of parole, was reportedly reached after two years of negotiation and signed by an official appointed by then-Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin. Austin was reportedly caught by surprise and immediately attempted to revoke the agreement.
Elsewhere, Ammar al-Baluchi, Mohammed’s nephew, allegedly helped fund the operation and enrolled hijackers in flight school. Mustafa Ahmad al-Hawsawi, a Saudi man, is accused of supplying cash, credit cards, and clothing for those involved in the plot.
Ramzi bin al-Shibh, initially charged, was found mentally incompetent to stand trial.