Trial date lastly set for alleged 9/11 mastermind – practically 25 years after assault
An alleged 9/11 mastermind will finally stand trial for the terror attack horror, a quarter of a century on
Khalid Sheikh Mohammed will face trial(Image: AFP/Getty Images)
An alleged 9/11 mastermind is set to stand trial – 25 years after the horror in America. Alleged terrorist Khalid Sheikh Mohammed will stand trial in June 2028, more than a quarter of a century after what the terrible events on September 11, 2001.
A military judge has now ruled the trial will start in two years because a 2027 date sought by prosecutors was too soon and they want the trial to be “fully ready”.
Mohammed previously had agreed a plea deal where he said he would plead guilty in exchange for avoiding the death penalty, but a federal appeals court said no and threw out the agreement last summer.
Arrested in 2003, he has been held at Guantanamo Bay since September 2006.
This undated FBI file image shows Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, as he appeared on the FBI’s Most Wanted Terrorists website.(Image: FBI/AFP via Getty Images)
Mohammed has previously said he planned 2001’s “9/11 operation from A-to-Z” but refused to plead guilty without assurances that he would not be killed.
US Air Force judge Lt Col Michael A Schrama ruled on Wednesday that the trial for Mohammed and three co-accused would start on 5 June, 2028. The three set to stand trial alongside him include Walid bin Attash, Ali Abdul Aziz Ali and Mustafa al-Hawsawi.
This September marks 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.
More than 3,000 people died in the attacks, and Mohammed is the one accused of conceiving the idea of training pilots to fly commercial planes into buildings and taking those plans to Osama Bin Laden, leader of al-Qaeda.
September 11 was 25 years ago this year(Image: Getty Images NA)
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-Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin.
But Austin was reportedly caught by surprise, and immediately attempted to revoke it.
