US military trial of 9/11 suspects drags on 20 years after attack

Torture, secrecy and dysfunction plague military tribunal at Guantanamo Bay with no resolution in sight.

Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the alleged mastermind of the September 11 attacks, along with four co-defendants appeared in a military courtroom at Guantanamo Bay this week for the first time since the coronavirus pandemic began. The aging Mohammed, now 57 years old, his long beard tinted orange, smiled and gestured with his four co-defendants – all kept outside the courtroom in isolation at the high-security United States prison. Mustafa Ahmed al-Hawsawi, Ramzi bin al-Shibh, Walid bin Attash, and Abd al-Aziz Ali and Mohammed face the death penalty in a trial by military tribunal at Guantanamo Bay that has yet to start and remains bogged in process 20 years after the attacks.