RESOLVING THE LEDGER
This is one outlet's own report from The Straits Times — the article as it was filed. Other outlets are covering the same event; open the full story to compare every source side by side.
See the full story · 8 sourcesKhalid Sheikh Mohammed is shown in this file photograph during his arrest on March 1, 2003.
Listen Summarise Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and three co-defendants will face trial in a military tribunal starting June 5, 2028, after two decades of legal delays at Guantanamo Bay. A 2025 plea deal to avoid the death penalty was revoked, and the court denied attempts to plead guilty, prolonging the trial process. The trial will begin with jury selection, followed by prosecution and defence evidence, ending with sentencing under military justice rules. AI generated
A US Air Force judge on Aug 26 ordered Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the accused mastermind of the Sept 11, 2001, attacks on the United States, and three co-defendants to go on trial before a military tribunal in June 2028.
The trial-scheduling order entered by Air Force Lieutenant Colonel Michael Schrama marked the latest milestone in a military prosecution beset by two decades of legal deadlock surrounding the four detainees held in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
In July, a US appeals court refused to allow Khalid and two of his co-defendants to plead guilty under agreements that would have spared them the death penalty.
The appellate decision reversed decisions of a military judge and the US Court of Military Commission Review in support of the plea deal.
The agreement had been offered in 2025 and accepted by the official who oversees the Pentagon’s Guantanamo war court, only to be revoked last August by then-Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin amid criticism of the deal from Republican lawmakers.
Under Schrama’s 11-page order, Mohammed and three co-defendants – Walid Muhammad Salih Mubarak bin ‘Atash, Mustafa Ahmed Adam al Hawsawi, and Ali Abdul Aziz Ali – will stand trial starting on June 5, 2028.
The proceedings open with selection of a panel consisting entirely of service members who will act as the jury to hear the case according to rules of military justice.
Opening statements will commence 30 calendar days after the panel is seated, followed by presentation of the prosecution’s evidence, after which the defendants may file motions for findings of not guilty.
The order gives both sides opportunities to argue those motions and rebut one another, and for prosecutors to reopen their case. The defence presents its principal evidence starting 60 calendar days after the prosecution concludes its case.
Schrama rejected the prosecutors’ proposal to open the trial in January 2027, saying that would leave too little time for the “resolution of pretrial evidentiary and compliance motions”.
Khalid remains the most well-known inmate at the Guantanamo detention facility, which was set up in 2002 by then-US President George W. Bush to house foreign militant suspects following the Sept 11 attacks.
He is accused of orchestrating the plot to fly hijacked passenger jetliners into the World Trade Center in New York City and into the Pentagon. The 9/11 attacks killed nearly 3,000 people. REUTERS
AIPROPX is an independent multi-source news index — we track, compare, and connect coverage from across the web into one place you won't find anywhere else.