Trial for men accused of plotting September 11 attacks set for 2021

Khalid Shaikh Mohammed was on the FBI's ten most wanted list for some time. [Courtesy]

The five suspects said to have plotted the 9/11 terror attacks will finally face a death-penalty trial, it today has been confirmed.

Khalid Shaikh Mohammed and four other men will appear at Guantánamo Bay in relation to charges in connection to the attacks which killed 2,976 people.

New York, Washington DC and a field in Pennsylvania were targeted on September 11, 2001.

But now, almost 18 years on, Colonel W. Shane Cohen of the Air Force, has set January 11, 2021 as the trial date.

A military jury will be selected at the war court compound at the Navy base in Cuba called Camp Justice.

Lawyers have already seen a 10-page trial conduct order which outlines the strict deadlines so that a trial date can be reached.

The timetable includes a list of materials the prosecutors must provide the defence teams by October 1.

Mohammed has reportedly been tortured by the CIA in a US jail in Guantánamo Bay.

Marine Lt. Col. Derek Poteet, who is one of his lawyers, had previously said he has "significant information" which will defend the man.

But in the coordinated terror attacks, four passenger airliners operated by two US passenger carriers were hijacked.

Two of these crashed into the North and South towers, respectively, of the World Trade Center complex in Lower Manhattan.

Another plane, United Airlines Flight 93, was initially flown toward Washington DC, but crashed into a field in Stonycreek Township near Shanksville, Pennsylvania, after its passengers thwarted the hijackers.

9/11 remains the single deadliest terrorist attack in human history.