Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the alleged mastermind of the Sept. 11 terror attacks, and three co-conspirators are scheduled to stand trial beginning June 5, 2028, at the Guantánamo Bay military commission. The announcement on Wednesday set a date for a case that has been mired in pre-trial proceedings for more than two decades.
Mohammed and his alleged accomplices—Walid bin Attash, Mustafa al-Hawsawi, and Ammar al-Baluchi—have been held at the detention facility in Cuba since 2003. The protracted timeline has led one former Guantánamo military commissions prosecutor, Michael Lebowitz, to describe the case as akin to "Frankenstein's zombie court."
Systemic Delays
Lebowitz attributes the extensive delays not to a lack of evidence, but to the complexities and evolution of the military commission system itself. He noted that conducting even minor hearings requires extensive travel for judges, prosecutors, defense counsel, and witnesses, a logistical challenge that contributes to the case's slow pace.
"It's the system and how it evolved and was created. And it's also an issue of Guantánamo Bay itself, where Gitmo is an adequate, albeit expensive, option for things like detaining suspected war criminals and even migrants," Lebowitz told Fox News Digital. "The problem is that we used to call it the traveling circus because, in order to even conduct the smallest court hearing, everybody has to go to Washington, D.C., and get on an airplane."
He further explained that the system can be exploited by defense lawyers, hindering progress. "What I found was that the way the system has kind of been set up and how it evolved and turned into, it's essentially a candy store for defense lawyers, where the judges don't have teeth to control the courtroom like you would in federal court," Lebowitz said. "It just goes from there where defense lawyers can really grease up the system and grease up the gears and really grind it to a halt."
Case History and Plea Deal
The case has seen numerous judicial changes, with Lebowitz stating that more than 10 judges have been assigned to it, necessitating the relitigation of recurring issues. The charges against the defendants stem from their alleged roles in the 2001 attacks, in which hijackers crashed commercial airliners into the World Trade Center in New York City and the Pentagon. A fourth plane crashed in Pennsylvania after passengers intervened.
In 2024, Mohammed, bin Attash, and al-Hawsawi reportedly agreed to plead guilty in exchange for life sentences, avoiding the death penalty. While some families of 9/11 victims supported this potential resolution, others opposed it. The Biden administration subsequently withdrew the plea deal, leading to further legal proceedings.
An issue that prosecutors must still address is whether to seek the death penalty. Lebowitz indicated that even if a death sentence were imposed, its ultimate enforcement would be highly unlikely, citing the complexities of putting agencies like the CIA on trial for their treatment of detainees. The 2028 trial date provides a framework for resolving these long-standing legal disputes.