The long-awaited trial for Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the alleged mastermind of the September 11, 2001 attacks, has been scheduled to begin on June 5, 2028, a military judge ruled Wednesday.

Mohammed, who has been held since his capture in 2003 and is currently at Guantanamo Bay, will face charges nearly a quarter-century after the coordinated attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people in the United States.

The trial date was set by Lt. Col. Michael Schrama, who rejected prosecutors' earlier request for a 2027 trial, deeming it too soon. This decision follows years of legal proceedings, including a controversial plea agreement that was later revoked.

In July 2024, Mohammed and two other defendants at Guantanamo had reached a plea deal with military prosecutors. Under this agreement, they would have pleaded guilty to all charges, including murder, in exchange for the death penalty being removed as a potential sentence. Mohammed would have received a life sentence at Guantanamo.

This proposed plea deal drew criticism from some victims' families. Shortly after, then-Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin revoked the agreement, stating that the decision to enter such pre-trial agreements should rest with him as the superior convening authority under the Military Commissions Act of 2009. The Biden administration later sought to uphold the revocation in federal court, and a federal appeals court in Washington, D.C., ruled in favor of Austin's authority to revoke the deal.

The prosecution of Mohammed and other alleged 9/11 plotters has been significantly delayed, spanning over a decade. A major point of contention has been the admissibility of evidence obtained during their prior detention at CIA black sites, where torture was allegedly used.

The 9/11 attacks, carried out by the Afghanistan-based terrorist group al-Qaeda, involved hijacked passenger jets striking the World Trade Center in New York City, the Pentagon near Washington, D.C., and a fourth plane that crashed in Pennsylvania. The attacks resulted in the deaths of 2,976 people and injured thousands more.

With the trial now set for 2028, it remains to be seen how the legal challenges surrounding evidence and the plea deal's revocation will ultimately shape the proceedings.