The long-awaited trial of 9/11 mastermind, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, finally has an official start date. The judge, Col. W. Shane Cohen of the Air Force, will begin the process on January 11th, 2021, with a selection of a military jury at Camp Justice, the war court of Guantanamo Bay. Mohammed and four other men will be charged with terrorism, conspiracy, committing murder in violation of the law of war and attacking civilians. A conviction on these charges will surely carry the death penalty.
Mohammed and his four co-conspirators were captured in Pakistan in 2002 and 2003; they’ve been held in Guantanamo Bay since 2006. They were originally going to be tried under President George W. Bush, but politics got in the way.
From The New York Times:
President Barack Obama stopped that case and suspended the war court, known as military commissions, to overhaul it with Congress by adding more protections for due process. The case was also delayed by an Obama administration plan to try them in federal court in New York City, a proposal that drew political protests and legislation to prevent it.
According to The Hill, the four terrorists were officially arraigned in 2012 at Guantanamo.
The judge has given the prosecution and defense teams until October 1st to set up the parameters of the trial. If the current schedule goes as planned, the trial will commence as the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks approaches.