9/11 suspects set for death penalty trial
FIVE suspects alleged to have plotted the 9/11 terror attacks will finally face a death penalty trial, it was confirmed yesterday.
Khalid Shaikh Mohammed and four other men will appear in court in connection to the atrocity, which claimed the lives of 2,976 people in NewYork, Washington and Pennsylvania in 2001.
Colonel W. Shane Cohen, of the US Air Force, has now set January 11, 2021, as the trial date.
A military jury will be chosen at the war court compound at Camp Justice, located at the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base in Cuba.
Lawyers have gone through a 10-page trial conduct order which underlines the strict deadlines to help a trial date to be reached.
Marine Lt Col Derek Poteet, who is Mohammed’s lawyer, had previously said he has “significant information” which will defend him.
Four passenger airliners were hijacked in the coordinated terror attacks. Two crashed into the World Trade Centre complex in Lower Manhattan, New York. Both of the Twin Towers were destroyed, with 2,753 people killed.
At the Pentagon in Washington, 184 people were killed when hijacked American Airlines Flight 77 crashed into the building.
Near Shanksville, Pennsylvania, 40 passengers and crew members aboard United Airlines Flight 93 died when the aircraft crashed into a field.
The 9/11 atrocity remains the single deadliest terrorist attack in history.