Five men will be tried for planning the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks after a military judge approved the charges.
Charges against a sixth man, known as the “20th hijacker,” were not approved. Mohammed al-Qahtani, called an unindicted co-conspirator, was detained by immigration agents at the airport in Orlando, Fla., and could not take part in the plot.
The men, who will be arraigned within 30 days of the charges being served, are all Guantanamo Bay detainees, including suspected mastermind Khalid Sheik Mohammed.
The charges were approved May 9, but the defendants were not told about them until Monday afternoon.
Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty for all the defendants. The trial will be the first capital case before the military tribunals at Guantanamo, the first U.S. military war crimes tribunals since World War II, The Associated Press reported.
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