Currently, only 15 prisoners remain at the Guantanamo Bay detention camp, with no concrete date for its definitive closure.
A Failed Negotiation Amid efforts to close the prison, military prosecutors and then the Pentagon's official in charge of Guantanamo reached an agreement in 2024 under which Mohamed and two other defendants would plead guilty in exchange for avoiding the death penalty and receiving life sentences.
The deal was presented as the fastest way to provide a resolution for the victims of the attacks, but it also drew criticism from families who demanded a public trial and the possibility of a capital sentence.
The Biden administration reversed course and asked a federal appeals court to halt the formalization of the guilty pleas, arguing that the agreement deprived the government and the public of a complete process and the option of the death penalty.
The revocation of these deals returned the case to its initial state and forced the rescheduling of new preliminary hearings.
Human rights organizations and advocates for the prisoners warn that with only 15 prisoners still in Guantanamo and no clear solution for major cases like that of 9/11, the prison risks becoming a perpetual symbol of a legal "limbo" without a closure date.
Preliminary hearings in the case against Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the alleged mastermind of the September 11, 2001 attacks, resume this Monday in Guantanamo after a prolonged pause in the process, which has been stalled in its preliminary phase nearly 14 years after its reopening and almost 25 years after the attacks.
The trial against the most important prisoner at the U.S. naval base in eastern Cuba and his accomplices continues without a date while schedules are being reordered, following the failure of attempts to close the case through plea agreements that would have avoided the death penalty.
9-11 Attacks: What do we know about the accused?
This is the most complex case among the military commissions created in Guantanamo, where the United States has held about 780 men since 2002, of whom only 15 remain, all considered high-risk or trapped in a legal limbo.
Among them are Sheikh Mohammed and several accused in the 9/11 attacks, held in maximum-security facilities after years in CIA secret prisons and subjected to interrogation techniques considered torture, such as simulated drowning.
The charges against Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, Ammar al-Baluchi, Walid bin Attash, Ramzi bin al-Shibh, and Mustafa al-Hawsawi were first presented to a military commission in 2008 for allegedly organizing one of the worst terrorist attacks in U.S. history.
The defendants face the death penalty for the murder of nearly 3,000 people in the 9/11 attacks in New York, Washington, and Pennsylvania.
However, the proceedings were suspended for several years and were reformed under new rules in 2012 when the current preliminary hearings began.
Since then, the process has been plagued by logistical delays, disputes over CIA involvement in interrogations, defense complaints about wiretaps, and discussions about access to classified information and Red Cross reports.
In 2023, a military judge separated Ramzi bin al-Shibh from the main case due to mental incapacity, while the trial against the other four continues, though according to legal experts, this complicates any future negotiated solution.
Obama and the Failed Attempts to Close Guantanamo
During his presidency (2009-2017), Democrat Barack Obama made the closure of the prison in Guantanamo one of his central objectives.
In 2009, Obama signed an executive order to close the prison within a year and to transfer or try all detainees, but he faced opposition from Congress to receiving prisoners on U.S. soil and other diplomatic obstacles to relocating detainees without charges, so the facility remained operational despite its population being drastically reduced.
Joe Biden revived that purpose upon taking office and ordered an interagency review of the center, before repatriating or resettling more than two dozen detainees.
