The 9/11 Trial Is Finally Scheduled — for 2028. Here's Why It's Taken So Long

A US military judge has set the trial of four men accused of planning the 9/11 attacks to begin on June 5, 2028. That's nearly 27 years after the attacks happened on September 11, 2001 Al Jazeera.

Air Force Lieutenant Colonel Michael Schrama issued the order on August 27, 2026, according to Al Jazeera. Schrama turned down a request from prosecutors to start the trial in early 2027. He said there was not enough time to sort out all the legal issues that still needed to be resolved before the trial could begin.

The four defendants are Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, Walid bin Attash, Mustafa al-Hawsawi, and Ali Abdul Aziz Ali. All four have been held at Guantanamo Bay, the US military prison in Cuba, for years. Their trial has been delayed over and over again by legal arguments, disputes over secret evidence, and the complicated rules of the military court system that handles terrorism cases.

Getting to this trial date has not been a straight line. In 2024, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and two of the other defendants made a deal: they would plead guilty, and in exchange, they would not face the death penalty. But then-Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin canceled that deal within days. A US appeals court later agreed with Austin's decision, blocking the plea deals and putting the possibility of the death penalty back on the table. That court ruling shut down the last way to avoid a full trial.

The scheduling order lays out how the trial will work. First, a jury of military service members will be chosen. Then, 30 days after that, the trial will officially begin with opening statements. The defense team will start presenting its side 60 days after the prosecutors finish theirs. If any defendants are convicted, there will be a separate sentencing phase to decide their punishment.

Khalid Sheikh Mohammed was captured by US forces in Pakistan in March 2003. He then spent three years in secret CIA prisons — sometimes called "black sites" — before being moved to Guantanamo Bay in 2006. During his time in CIA custody, he was subjected to harsh interrogation techniques, which many consider to be torture. This history has led to a huge number of legal fights over whether the things he said during those interrogations can be used as evidence in the trial. These disputes are a big part of why the judge said the trial could not start sooner.

The broader context here helps explain why a case this important has taken more than 20 years to get to trial. The case involves classified intelligence — secret information about how the US gathers intelligence. Every time a piece of secret evidence comes up, it sets off a chain of procedures to decide whether the defense lawyers can see it and whether jurors are allowed to hear it. It is a bit like building a courtroom inside a vault: every piece of evidence has to be checked for secrets before anyone can use it. The result is a trial that moves slowly, not because the charges are not serious, but because the system for handling this kind of case was not built for situations like this.

The June 2028 date also matters politically. By that year, the US will have a new president after the 2028 election, and the trial will take place under that new administration. The prison at Guantanamo Bay has been debated by politicians for years, and a trial this high-profile will bring a lot of attention to how the process works and what sentences are handed down.

For the families of the nearly 3,000 people killed on September 11, 2001, this scheduling order is just another step in a wait that has now lasted a generation. Whether the June 2028 date actually holds, or whether more legal challenges push it back again, is still an open question given how many times this trial has been delayed before.