The alleged mastermind of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks against the United States will await trial after nearly two decades since his capture in 2003.
Upon his capture in 2003, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed was the most high-profile terror suspect in the attacks that killed 2,977 people, according to the New York Post.
After being dragged from his hiding place in Rawalpindi, Pakistan, on March 1, 2003, Mohammed was placed in a detention center in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, where he would await trial.
It's "an awful tragedy for the families of the victims," David Kelley, a former US attorney in New York, said of the U.S. government's failure to place the alleged terrorist before a judge.
Kelley, who formerly co-chaired the Justice Department's nationwide investigation into the attacks, added that the situation at Guantanamo was "a tremendous blemish on the country's history."
But experts say it may be challenging to try Mohammed in a civilian court due to the "enhanced interrogation techniques" to which CIA operatives subjected him. Critics say that the 183 known instances of waterboarding were tantamount to torture, which could mean that the information Mohammed provided at the time may be inadmissible in a civilian court.
Additionally, plans to try Mohammed via a military tribunal have also run into problems. But families of victims say they just want closure.
"It's important to me that America finally gets to the truth about what happened, how it was done," said George Haberman, whose 25-year-old daughter Andrea worked at the World Trade Center and died after one of the planes struck right below her floor.
Haberman has visited Guantanamo four times from his home in Wisconsin but always left feeling disappointed.
"I personally want to see this go to trial," he stated.
© 2025 Newsmax. All rights reserved.