Trial date set for principal architect of 9/11 Khalid Shaikh Mohammad
Khalid Shaikh Mohammad and four others will be tried over their alleged involvement in the 9/11 atta..
A trial date has been set for Khalid Shaikh Mohammad who is the alleged architect of the 9/11 terror attacks.
Mohammed, a senior al-Qaida figure who has portrayed himself as the mastermind of the atrocity, will stand trial with four other men on January 11, 2021.
The five men are currently being held at Guantánamo Bay prison, in Cuba, after being arrainged in May 2012.
They are charged with war crimes including, terrorism, hijacking and nearly 3,000 counts of murder, for their alleged roles planning and providing logistical support to the attacks.
They will all face the death penalty if found guilty at Guantánamo – almost 20 years after the tragic attacks on New Yorks World Trade Center and the Pentagon.
Mohammad and his four co-defendants have been held at Guantánamo since September 2006, after several years in clandestine CIA detention facilities following their capture.
Mohammad was captured in Pakistan in 2003 before being transferred to the US base where he was later charged.
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Previously, the Pentagon said Mohammed admitted he was involved in the the September 2001 attacks from A to Z .
The other defendants are Walid bin Attash, who is accused of running an al-Qaida training camp, and Ammar al-Baluchi, alleged of heavily funding the hijackers and their pilot training.
Ramzi bin al-Shibh, is accused of planning the logistics of the attack, and Mustafa Ahmad al-Hawsawi, is alleged of supplying money and clothing for the plane hijackers.
The new trial date is a step forward in a case that has been bogged down in pretrial litigation for several years.
But judge Colonel W. Shane Cohen admitted the trial at the Cuban US base will face a host of administrative and logistics challenges which could push back the date even further.