Trial Date Set For Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, 4 Others Charged in 9/11 Attacks

Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, seen shortly after his capture during a 2003 raid in Pakistan, is accused of masterminding the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people.

By Vanessa Romo, Sacha Pfeiffer

August 30, 2019

A U.S. military court judge in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, has set a trial date for Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and the other four men charged with plotting the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001.

Judge W. Shane Cohen, an Air Force colonel who took over the case in June, set a date of Jan. 11, 2021, though a number of other deadlines would need to be met for the trial to begin then. That includes the U.S. government turning over all evidence it is required to give to defense attorneys; lawyers for the five defendants say prosecutors have not been forthcoming in doing so.

Several defense attorneys told NPR they think the scheduled trial date is unrealistic, and they say Guantanamo isn't physically ready for a trial of that magnitude. But prosecutors have been asking for a trial date for several years and say that finally having one will motivate all parties to meet the deadline.

The 9/11 attacks killed nearly 3,000 people in New York, Pennsylvania and Washington, D.C.