9/11 mastermind’s trial set for 2028 after two decades of pre-trial proceedings
Developed over time first seen 2 months ago
A quarter of a century after the 11 September 2001 attacks, the trial of alleged mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed has still not begun, though a trial date has now been set for June 2028 following pre-trial proceedings at Guantanamo Bay that have dragged on for 20 years and been overseen by five different military judges. This matters because relatives of the almost 3,000 people killed fear time is running out for justice to be served, with elderly family members worried they may not live to see a verdict, and concern that the defendants themselves could die before facing trial.
Tom Resta, whose brother John and heavily pregnant sister-in-law Sylvia died in the World Trade Center's north tower, has travelled to Guantanamo four times to observe what he calls a "laborious and tedious" legal process, and says his father, who turns 98 in November, does not expect to live to see the trial concluded. Stephan Gerhardt, whose younger brother Ralph also died in the attacks, has made six trips to Guantanamo and said his greatest fear was that Mohammed and his co-defendants would die of old age before being convicted, which he described as something that would be "an injustice to all the family members".
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In short
- 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed's trial finally set for June 2028
- Pre-trial process at Guantanamo Bay has lasted 20 years under five judges
- Victims' relatives fear dying before seeing justice served
How this story developed
- 2 months ago Coverage widened beyond the legal delay to mark the 25th anniversary itself, spotlighting a couple who fell in love after being stranded in Gander, Newfoundland during the attacks, alongside worldwide commemorations, even as families reiterated that Mohammed's trial still has not started.
- 2 months ago Guantanamo prosecutors set a June 2028 trial date for accused 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, capping 20 years of pre-trial wrangling under five military judges while bereaved relatives like Tom Resta and Stephan Gerhardt fear the defendants or elderly family members may die before a verdict is reached.
- BBC World ‘Constantly on my mind’ – 9/11 agony goes on for bereaved, 25 years on
- Daily Mail Immersive ‘9/11 watch party’ is planned in Bournemouth with guests invited to ‘relive’ the world’s deadliest terror attack
- Daily Mail Nick and Diane met stranded in Newfoundland on 9/11 and fell instantly in love… 25 happy years later they tell the life-affirming full story (including moment a blushing flight attendant caught them canoodling!)
Full account
Twenty-five years after the attacks of 11 September 2001, the trial of the man accused of masterminding them has still not begun. Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, commonly known as KSM, has been held at the US naval base at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba for two decades without ever being convicted, while pre-trial hearings against him and his co-defendants have dragged on so long that five different military judges have presided over them. Last month, shortly before the 25th anniversary, officials confirmed a trial date of June 2028, a development described as a rare breakthrough after years of legal wrangling that families of victims have found gruelling to follow.
For relatives who have travelled to the remote base to witness proceedings, the wait has been agonising. Tom Resta, whose brother John and pregnant sister-in-law Sylvia were killed while working on the 92nd floor of the World Trade Center's north tower, has made four trips to Guantanamo to watch what he calls a laborious and tedious process play out behind thick security glass. Relatives are chosen by lottery to attend, and Resta said the anniversary remains constantly on his mind even a quarter of a century later. His elderly parents, he fears, may not live to see any trial reach its conclusion, and he is bracing himself for the possibility of yet further delay before 2028.
Other families who have made repeated pilgrimages to the base, including Stephan Gerhardt, who was making his sixth visit this year, share similar anxieties that justice may never fully catch up with those accused. The concern voiced across these accounts is less about the eventual verdict than about whether ageing relatives, and even the defendants themselves, will still be alive by the time a courtroom finally delivers one. The US government has characterised the plot as the most serious criminal act committed on American soil in modern times, yet the sheer duration of the legal process has become, for many bereaved families, a story in itself.
The anniversary has also been marked in markedly different ways elsewhere. In Bournemouth, an arts collective staged a widely criticised 'watch party' inviting guests to surrender their phones and re-experience rolling news coverage of the attacks alongside contemporary conspiracy theories, a stunt one local councillor said risked turning tragedy into spectacle, though organisers insisted it was not intended to trivialise the events. By contrast, gentler anniversary coverage recalled how the day reshaped individual lives far from Ground Zero, such as the British and American couple who met after their transatlantic flights were diverted to Newfoundland, a chance encounter later immortalised in the musical Come From Away. Together, the range of coverage underlines how the legacy of 9/11 is still being processed a generation on, whether through the slow grind of military justice, uneasy commemorative art, or stories of unlikely connection born from catastrophe.
Where outlets differ
From the full account, which is AI-written from the sources:
The BBC-style report centres on the judicial and human cost of the delayed Guantanamo Bay trial, quoting bereaved relatives such as Tom Resta and Stephan Gerhardt about their frustration and fear that families or defendants may not live to see a verdict.
The Daily Mail piece about Nick and Diane Marson is a human-interest anniversary feature unrelated to the legal proceedings, focusing on a romance that began when their flights were diverted to Gander, Newfoundland, and later inspired the musical Come From Away.
The Bournemouth 'watch party' report covers a controversial commemorative art event, including criticism from a local councillor that it risked trivialising the attacks, and organisers' defence that it was not intended as celebration.
Only the trial-focused source addresses the 2028 court date referenced in the headline; the other two sources reflect broader, tangential ways the 25th anniversary was marked in the media rather than the legal process itself.
Centre outlets 1
Only here: constantly, mind, agony, goes, bereaved
Right-leaning outlets 2
- Nick and Diane met stranded in Newfoundland on 9/11 and fell instantly in love… 25 happy years later they tell the life-affirming full story (including moment a blushing flight attendant caught them canoodling!)Daily Mail
- Immersive ‘9/11 watch party’ is planned in Bournemouth with guests invited to ‘relive’ the world’s deadliest terror attackDaily Mail
Only here: nick, diane, stranded, newfoundland, fell
Headline columns compared word for word; nothing in them is AI-written.
Steelman: both sides, in good faith
The strongest fair case each way — we don't pick a winner.
The case for
Supporters of the methodical, years-long pre-trial process argue that the gravity of capital charges and the extraordinary legal complexities involved demand exactly this level of caution, particularly given unresolved questions about evidence obtained through interrogation methods now widely regarded as torture. They contend that rushing a case of this magnitude, which involves classified national security material and contested evidence, risks producing a conviction that later collapses on appeal, ultimately failing victims' families far more than the delay itself. Upholding rigorous fair-trial standards, even for those accused of an atrocity on this scale, is what they see as distinguishing a lawful justice system from a summary one.
The case against
For many bereaved relatives, two decades of pre-trial wrangling represents an unacceptable failure to deliver timely accountability, with elderly parents and siblings now facing the real prospect of dying before any verdict is reached. They argue that the overriding purpose of the justice system is to provide closure to those harmed, and that procedural delay, however legally defensible in theory, becomes a form of injustice in itself when it stretches across a generation. From this perspective, the priority ought to be a swift, decisive reckoning for an attack that killed nearly 3,000 people, rather than an open-ended process whose end point keeps receding.
Explained simply
Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, described by prosecutors as the mastermind of the 9/11 attacks, has been held at the US naval base at Guantanamo Bay for years while awaiting trial before a military commission, a special court set up to handle terrorism cases outside the ordinary civilian or military justice system. He and several co-defendants face charges over the coordinated hijackings of 11 September 2001, which killed nearly 3,000 people in New York, at the Pentagon and in a field in Pennsylvania.
The case has been unusually slow to reach trial, partly because of legal disputes over evidence obtained through the CIA's use of torture on the defendants after their capture, questions about whether that evidence can be used, and repeated changes of military judge overseeing the proceedings. These pre-trial disputes have continued for two decades without a trial actually starting.
The delay matters to the families of those killed, many of whom have travelled to Guantanamo repeatedly to witness the hearings and are growing concerned that elderly relatives, or even the defendants themselves, may die before a verdict is reached. The case is widely seen as a test of how the United States delivers justice in terrorism prosecutions that involve contested evidence and detention practices.
Coverage · 3 sources
Bias meters
From 3 rated sources.
- Daily MailRightNick and Diane met stranded in Newfoundland on 9/11 and fell instantly in love… 25 happy years later they tell the life-affirming full story (including moment a blushing flight attendant caught them canoodling!)
- Daily MailRightImmersive ‘9/11 watch party’ is planned in Bournemouth with guests invited to ‘relive’ the world’s deadliest terror attack
- BBC WorldCentre‘Constantly on my mind’ – 9/11 agony goes on for bereaved, 25 years on
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