'Mastermind' of 9/11 to stand trial almost 27 years after attacks

The alleged mastermind behind the September 11 terror attacks in 2001 will finally go on trial 27 years after the world watched on in horror in a series of attacks which left thousands dead.

Khalid Sheikh Mohammed will stand accused of being the architect of the 9/11 attacks, which killed more than 3,200 people. The trial comes nearly three decades on from that infamous day, despite the fact US officials detained Mohammed way back in 2003.

Both the prosecutorial and judicial process has been significantly delayed for Guantánamo inmates, with Mohammed, now 61, not charged for five years after his initial arrest. He has been held at the Guantánamo Bay detention centre since 2006.

He was eventually charged in 2008 for carrying out war crimes and murder. The alleged terror mastermind will face a military court alongside alleged co-conspirators Walid bin Attash, Ali Abdul Aziz Ali, and Mustafa Ahmed al-Hawsawi, in June 2028. As per NBC News, the new June 2028 trial date was set by military commissions judge Michael Schrama after he rejected a proposed trial date window of January 2027, which had been suggested by the prosecution.

The fresh date for the military trial comes in the wake of a failed attempt at a plea deal by Mohammed, in which the 61-year-old applied to an appellate court to strike a deal of a guilty plea in exchange for a chance at a death sentence.

Lawyers acting on behalf of Mohammed have accused the US government of stalling the long-awaited for trials to allow more time to cover up evidence of torture used against detainees at CIA black sites or in prisons like Guantánamo; offshore and technically outside the US legal system, which has seen authorities take advantage of a number of legal grey areas at the expense of those detained.

A report from the US Senate report from 2014 found that the CIA had used what it called “enhanced interrogation techniques” against Mohammed and his fellow conspirators on hundreds of occasions, including 183 instances of waterboarding. The report described the torture method used as “a series of near-drownings”, as black sites and detention centres like Guantánamo operate with little to no oversight.

As per the US Department of Justice, habeas corpus—the legal recourse against unlawful detention— does not apply when it comes to inmates held at Guantánamo as the Cuban island is technically not a US territory, allowing suspects to be held without charge in effective perpetuity.

Mohammed was accused of orchestrating 2001 terror plots that saw global militant Islamist terrorist organsation al-Qaeda hjjack a number of planes before flying them into the New York’s World Trade Centre and the Pentagon building in Washington.

Another hijacked plane did not make its target and instead crashed into a field in Pennsylvania. Brave passengers fought back in an attempt to regain control of the aircraft, which was headed for another government building in DC.