US sets 2028 trial date for 9/11 accused Khalid Sheikh Mohammed

More than 20 years after his capture, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed has finally been given a trial date. A US military judge has scheduled the trial of the alleged September 11 mastermind and three co-defendants to begin on 5 June 2028 at Guantanamo Bay.

But the announcement has been met with deep scepticism. Many lawyers involved in the case warn that a trial may never actually happen, pointing to a legal process that has already collapsed multiple times under the weight of political fights and the legacy of CIA torture.

The latest major blow to the prosecution came in late August. The military judge ruled that a confession Mohammed made to the FBI in 2007 could not be used in court because it was tainted by his treatment in US custody. After his capture in Pakistan in 2003, Mohammed spent more than three years in secret CIA "black sites" before being transferred to Guantanamo on 5 September 2006. A US Senate investigation later revealed he was subjected to extensive torture, including 183 sessions of waterboarding.

Rather than appeal the judge's ruling on the confession—a move that would have caused even more delays—the US government chose to let it stand.

This is only the latest detour in a legal saga that has dragged on for decades. In 2009, the Obama administration announced plans to try Mohammed in a civilian federal court in Manhattan, just blocks from where the World Trade Centre stood. But the plan was quickly abandoned after intense political backlash over security concerns and fears that it would give Mohammed a public platform.

'It was a charade in many respects,' said Joshua Dratel, a defence lawyer who worked to secure legal representation for Mohammed. He argues the military commission system has proved to be far worse, calling it an inefficient structure that lacks the standards of federal courts.

More recently, a proposed 2024 plea agreement that would have kept Mohammed in prison for life but spared him the death penalty fell apart.

For the families of the nearly 3,000 victims of the September 11 attacks, the endless delays are an agonising ordeal. Yet many remain opposed to any resolution that spares the defendants' lives. Terry Strada, whose husband Tom died in the World Trade Centre, and who chairs the group 9/11 Families United, said she wants to see justice served, but would prefer Mohammed to remain at Guantanamo indefinitely rather than escape the death penalty. She expressed concern that without an execution, a future administration might exchange him for Americans held overseas.

But whether a trial ever takes place is increasingly doubtful. David Raskin, a former federal prosecutor who was set to lead the aborted civilian trial in New York, wrote in an essay for the Washington Post that the military commission system has become 'a defence lawyer’s dream', bogged down in endless litigation. He predicted that a military trial for Mohammed and his co-defendants will never be completed.