We're a little over two weeks away from the 25th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, and on Wednesday we learned that a military judge has now ordered a trial date for four co-conspirators in the attacks, including 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed (KSM).
Barring any more delays, the trial will start on June 5, 2028:
Prosecutors had asked the judge, Lt. Col. Michael Schrama, to start the trial at the U.S. Navy base at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, on Jan. 11, 2027. But defense lawyers and, apparently, the judge deemed that date unrealistic.
Colonel Schrama said in his order that the provisional date was contingent on the sides meeting a series of deadlines, or “milestones leading to a trial on the merits starting on Monday, 5 June 2028.”
The timeline means a military appeals court will have ruled on an earlier judge’s decision to suppress the confessions of one defendant, Ammar al-Baluchi, because he was tortured, and other related appeals.
Schrama is reportedly the fifth judge " to serve in this version of the case." The 9/11 attacks killed nearly 3,000 people.
In addition to KSM and al-Baluchi, the other two who will stand trial are Walid bin Attash and Mustafa Ahmed al-Hawsawi:
The trial date was announced after a split federal appeals court last summer threw out a potential agreement that would have allowed Mohammed to plead guilty in exchange for sparing him the risk of execution.
[...]
The road to prosecute Mohammed and other conspirators has dragged on for years, with the Obama-era military commissions system being tested for the first time — at times leading to lengthy challenges to its rules.
Defense lawyers have also argued that the holdup comes from what they say are the government’s efforts to hide details of torture used against detainees at secret CIA prisons before they were transferred to Guantánamo Bay.
According to the New York Times, "A fifth defendant, Ramzi bin al-Shibh, was found to be incompetent to face trial. His case was severed from the others and is being handled by a different judge."
It's an understatement to note the absolute ridiculousness of this case dragging on as long as it has. Enough already.