Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the alleged mastermind of the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States, will stand trial before a military tribunal in June 2028.
A US Air Force judge, Lieutenant Colonel Michael Schrama, issued the trial-scheduling order on Wednesday, marking another major step in a military prosecution that has been stalled by two decades of legal battles.
Mohammed and three co-defendants — Walid Muhammad Salih Mubarak bin ‘Atash, Mustafa Ahmed Adam al Hawsawi and Ali Abdul Aziz Ali — are scheduled to face trial from June 5, 2028.
The proceedings will begin with the selection of a panel made up entirely of service members who will serve as the jury under military justice rules.
Opening statements will begin 30 calendar days after the panel is seated. Prosecutors will then present their evidence before the defendants can file motions seeking findings of not guilty.
Both sides will have opportunities to argue and respond to those motions, while prosecutors may also reopen their case. The defence is scheduled to begin presenting its main evidence 60 calendar days after the prosecution concludes its case.
The proceedings will conclude with a sentencing phase.
Schrama rejected prosecutors’ proposal to begin the trial in January 2027, saying that date would leave insufficient time for the “resolution of pretrial evidentiary and compliance motions.”
The case has been complicated by years of legal disputes over plea agreements.
Last year, a US appeals court blocked Mohammed and two of his co-defendants from pleading guilty under agreements that would have spared them the death penalty. The decision overturned rulings by a military judge and the US Court of Military Commission Review that had supported the plea deal.
The agreement was initially offered in 2024 and accepted by the official overseeing the Pentagon’s Guantanamo war court. However, then-Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin revoked it last August following criticism from Republican lawmakers.
Mohammed remains the most prominent detainee at the Guantanamo Bay detention facility in Cuba, which was established in 2002 under then-US President George W. Bush to hold foreign militant suspects following the September 11 attacks.
He is accused of orchestrating the plot to hijack passenger aircraft and crash them into the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon.
The September 11 attacks killed nearly 3,000 people.
