Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the alleged mastermind of the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States, will stand trial before a US military court in June 2028, a spokesperson confirmed Thursday.
A spokesman for the US military court at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, where Mohammed is currently detained, announced that proceedings will commence on June 5, 2028.
Mohammed, widely known by his initials “KSM,” was regarded as one of al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden’s most senior lieutenants prior to his capture in Pakistan in March 2003.
Following his capture, he was held in secret CIA facilities for three years before being transferred to the US naval base at Guantanamo Bay in 2006.
His trial has faced repeated postponements, and a plea agreement that would have removed the death penalty as a possible sentence was withdrawn last year.
The trained engineer, who has previously stated that he was responsible for the 9/11 attacks “from A to Z,” is linked to a series of major plots targeting the United States, where he once attended university.
His most devastating operation was the 9/11 attacks, which resulted in nearly 3,000 deaths when hijacked airliners struck the Twin Towers in New York and the Pentagon in Washington, with a fourth plane crashing in a field in Pennsylvania.
Mohammed has also claimed involvement in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, which killed six people, and has asserted that he personally beheaded US journalist Daniel Pearl in 2002.
The United States operates the Guantanamo facility, an isolated naval base, to detain militants apprehended during the “War on Terror” that followed the September 11, 2001 attacks. The location was specifically chosen to prevent defendants from asserting rights under US law.
At its height, the facility housed approximately 800 prisoners, though detainees have gradually been transferred to other nations over the years. Only a small fraction of that original population remains.
(FRANCE 24 with AFP)
