Twenty-five years after nearly 3,000 people were killed on Sept. 11, families waiting to see the accused plotters brought to justice are confronting another extraordinary possibility: They may still never see a verdict. A military judge has scheduled alleged 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and three co-defendants to go on trial June 5, 2028, nearly 27 years after the attacks. But the date remains tentative, and a recent ruling barring prosecutors from using statements Mohammed made to FBI agents has underscored the legal obstacles still threatening the case.
"It’s like an open sore, and that sore gets even more hurtful when we get to anniversaries," John Ryan, former chief of department with the Port Authority Police who spent nine months working on the recovery operation at Ground Zero, told Fox News Digital. JUDGE THROWS OUT KHALID SHEIKH MOHAMMED'S 9/11 CONFESSION IN ALREADY LONG WAIT FOR TRIAL Ryan is among the victims’ families and first responders who have watched the prosecution drag through years of litigation over evidence obtained after the defendants were subjected to torture in CIA custody, a collapsed plea agreement, repeated changes in military judges and a mountain of unresolved pretrial motions. "Here we are 25 years later, and I’m still involved in this aspect of that here because we still have not convicted or taken to justice the five people that are being held at Guantánamo Bay," Ryan, who later became a commander with the FBI-led Joint Terrorism Task Force, said.
"The planners, KSM and the others that are in custody, are awaiting trial." Mohammed and three other defendants have been held by the U.S. for years without facing trial for their alleged roles in the plot that killed nearly 3,000 people. A fifth defendant, Ramzi bin al-Shibh, is being handled separately after being found mentally incompetent to stand trial. A military judge recently barred prosecutors from using statements Mohammed made to FBI agents in 2007, finding that the statements were tainted by the coercive treatment he had experienced in U.S. custody.
The government chose not to appeal the ruling, saying an appeal could jeopardize the June 5, 2028, trial date. The judge set the trial 18 months after the prosecution’s proposed January 2027 start to give the defense and government time to work through a long list of unresolved legal disputes. He is the fifth military judge to oversee the case since the defendants were arraigned in 2012.
For families who lost loved ones on Sept. 11, the years of delay have become another part of the trauma. I LOST MY WIFE ON 9/11; PLEASE LET THIS 25TH ANNIVERSARY BELONG TO THE FAMILIES Sean Passananti, whose father was killed on the 100th floor of the North Tower, said the passage of time has made the case feel increasingly detached from the scale of the crime. "It feels really like a twilight zone and unbelievable that we have to fight for justice for the worst terrorist attack that ever happened on our soil," Passananti said.
It’s unexplainable." SON WHO LOST FATHER IN 9/11 ATTACKS SHARES POWERFUL LESSONS 25 YEARS LATER: ‘I’M STILL HERE’ Passananti said he has attended the memorial ceremony every year but one since the attacks. "I wish I wasn’t here, obviously, but I feel like I have to be here every year," he said. Dennis McGinley, whose older brother Danny worked on the 89th floor of the South Tower, said the delays have kept his family from closing a painful chapter.
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