Confession from 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed thrown out: Ruling further delays trial 25 years after attacks

A military judge dismissed the confession of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the alleged mastermind of the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, had given to investigators in 2007, in a ruling that threatens to further prolong the already lengthy wait for his trial.

As reported by The New York Post, Lieutenant Colonel Michael Schrama determined that those statements were not given voluntarily and, therefore, should be excluded.

The decision was not immediately made public, but sources familiar with the ruling confirmed to The New York Post that Schrama excluded Mohammed's confessions from the case. The ruling comes just days after the judge set June 2028 as the start date for the trial against Mohammed and his three co-defendants: Walid Muhammad Salih bin Mubarak bin Attash, Mustafa Ahmed Adam al Hawsawi and Ali Abdul Aziz Ali, to coincide with the 25th anniversary of the attacks, which left nearly 3,000 dead.

Schrama had previously rejected a request by prosecutors to move the trial's start date up to January 2027, arguing that this timeline left very little time to resolve pending evidentiary and compliance motions before the trial.

The case has been plagued by years of delays and failed attempts to reach a plea agreement. In 2024, Mohammed, bin Attash, and al-Hawsawi had agreed to admit responsibility for the attacks in exchange for life in prison and to avoid the death penalty, a deal that also required them to answer any questions the victims' families might ask them about what happened that day. However, in the face of criticism from numerous victims' families, the Biden administration ultimately withdrew that agreement, which reopened the legal proceedings.

The three defendants remain detained at the U.S. naval base in Guantanamo Bay, in Cuba, where Mohammed has been detained since 2003. Neither the military prosecutors handling the case nor the group of relatives known as 9/11 Families United were willing to comment in detail on Schrama's most recent decision.