Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the alleged mastermind behind the terror attacks in the United States on September 11, 2001, has been given a trial date.

Mohammed was captured in 2003 and has spent nearly 20 years in detention at Guantanamo Bay prison in Cuba.

A US Air Force Judge late on Wednesday ordered that Mohammed and three co-defendants go before a military tribunal in June 2028.

The long-delayed procedure has been hampered by legal wrangling over confessions made after torture, finding a location where he could be tried, and intense emotions regarding the man widely regarded as the main planner of the 9/11 terror attacks .

An earlier plea deal in which Mohammed agreed to admit guilt in exchange for avoiding the death penalty was thrown out last year.

The new trial will see Mohammed, as well as Walid Muhammad Salih Mubarak bin 'Atash, Mustafa Ahmed Adam al Hawsawi, and Ali Abdul Aziz Ali stand trial in a US military court with service members acting as jury.

Who is Khalid Sheikh Mohammed?

Born in Kuwait in 1965, he is alleged to have been sympathetic to anti-Soviet Islamist causes before getting a degree in mechanical engineering from a US university in 1986.

He worked for a time as an engineer for the Qatari government. According to US intelligence agents, in the early 1990s he participated in a plot to bomb airliners traveling between the US and Asia that was never realized.

He is believed to have met al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden shortly after that. As the group's head of propaganda, he is accused of having helped plan the 1993 World Trade Center bombings, the 2002 Bali bombings in Indonesia, and the murder of US journalist Daniel Pearl as well as 9/11.

What is Mohammed charged with?

As the suspected mastermind of the September 11 attacks, he is charged with 2,977 counts of murder, terrorism, hijacking aircraft, and attacking civilians.

Because his charges are classified as war crimes, he will be tried by a military tribunal.

It is possible that he could be given the death penalty, but judges may seek to avoid that outcome because it can lead to a lengthy appeals process.

Edited by: Karl Sexton

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