Prosecutors ask judge to start 9/11 death-penalty trial on Jan. 11, 2027

Prosecutors this week asked a military judge to schedule Jan. 11, 2027, as the opening date for jury selection in the Sept. 11 conspiracy trial of Khalid Shaikh Mohammed and other defendants at the U.S. base in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. That date would begin a death-penalty trial a quarter century after the attacks and is projected to last more than a year.

The defendants were charged in 2012 after nearly a decade in U.S. custody. Only one previous judge put a trial date on the calendar — Jan. 11, 2021 — and that date was undone by the coronavirus pandemic and other complications. The case is now before a fifth judge, Lt. Col. Michael Schrama, who is preparing to pick up where the last judge left off.

A central contested issue is whether interrogations of men held at Guantánamo in 2007 and 2008 are too tainted by torture to be used at trial. Three defendants — Mr. Mohammed, Walid bin Attash and Mustafa al-Hawsawi — once agreed to waive most appeals and admit roles in the plot in exchange for life sentences, but that plea deal was overturned.

In April the last judge ruled that F.B.I. interrogations of Ammar al-Baluchi had been derived from C.I.A. torture and suppressed them; Judge Schrama has said he will hear from government witnesses and prosecutors in early 2026 and allow defense challenges beginning in the summer. Another question is whether a fifth defendant, Ramzi bin al-Shibh, will be tried with the others.

Key Topics

Politics, Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, Guantanamo Bay, Ammar Al-baluchi, Ramzi Bin Al-shibh, Cia Detention