Judge Throws Out 9/11 Suspect's 2007 Confessions, Jeopardizing June 2028 Trial
Updated
Updated · bbc.co.uk · Sep 8
Judge Throws Out 9/11 Suspect's 2007 Confessions, Jeopardizing June 2028 Trial
3 articles · Updated · bbc.co.uk · Sep 8
Summary
A military judge barred Khalid Sheikh Mohammed's FBI confessions after finding they followed years of CIA abuse, undercutting a case that still has not reached trial 25 years after 9/11.
The ruling strips prosecutors of what they had called their strongest evidence; they still have intercepted calls and secret recordings, but defense teams are expected to challenge those as well.
Prosecutors dropped an appeal to avoid pushing the June 5, 2028 trial even further back, yet victims' relatives still fear age, death or more legal wrangling could deny them a verdict.
The case has already cycled through five military judges, a collapsed plea-deal effort and two decades of Guantanamo detention, with torture-related disputes driving much of the delay.
Will abandoning a suppressed confession finally allow the decades-delayed 9/11 trial to begin in 2028?
How will prosecutors secure a conviction for the 9/11 mastermind without their strongest piece of evidence?
What hidden financial records can replace a coerced confession in the most complex military trial in history?
9/11 at 25: Why the U.S. Still Can’t Try Khalid Sheikh Mohammed—Torture, Suppressed Confessions, and the Endless Guantánamo Gridlock
Overview
After years of legal battles, the 9/11 prosecution reached a turning point in September 2026 when military prosecutors dropped their appeal to use Khalid Sheikh Mohammed’s 2007 confession. This confession had been suppressed by a judge who found it was tainted by years of CIA torture and coercion. With the confession excluded, the government must now rely on weaker evidence to prove Mohammed’s role. Earlier, attempts at plea deals to avoid the death penalty collapsed after political backlash and intervention by the Defense Secretary. As a result, the case remains stuck in pretrial limbo, with no convictions nearly 23 years after the attacks.