The US government has described the 9/11 attacks as the ‘most egregious criminal act on American soil in modern history.’ Yet, a quarter of a century later, the trial of the alleged architect remains pending, and families fear time for justice is running out.

Personal Loss and Lingering Pain

Tom Resta’s brother John and his wife Sylvia, who was seven months pregnant, were among the nearly 3,000 people killed when hijackers flew planes into the World Trade Center in New York City, the Pentagon in Virginia, and a field in Pennsylvania. The couple had been preparing their unborn baby’s nursery with characters from the children’s television show Blue’s Clues before the attacks.

On the day of the attacks, the couple—both traders—were working on the 92nd floor of the north tower of the World Trade Center. ‘After all this time, it still chokes me up,’ Resta told the BBC through tears. ‘While 25 years have passed, I still think about it almost constantly.’

Delays in the Legal Process

Resta has traveled to the US naval base of Guantanamo Bay four times to observe pre-trial proceedings for alleged 9/11 architect Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and his co-defendants. A military prison was established on the base during the ‘war on terror’ that followed the 9/11 attacks, and Mohammed,often referred to as KSM—has now been held there for 20 years without being convicted.

Relatives of victims enter a lottery process to attend the proceedings in a high-security courtroom, where thick glass separates them and members of the press from the defendants. The pre-trial process has been so lengthy that it has now been presided over by five different military judges.

Last month, as the 25th anniversary approached, there was a flurry of movement and a breakthrough, with a trial date set for Mohammed for June 2028. However, Resta said he is bracing himself for further delays. Some of his relatives fear they will not live long enough to see the trial.

‘My father will be 98 in November, and I don’t think he’s expecting to see it. I have a lot of family members,my aunts, uncles—that would all like to see it happen. But my parents in particular, I don’t think they expect to live long enough,’ he said. ‘Hopefully all the defendants will still be alive by the time we get to trial. That’s a big worry.’

Shared Concerns Among Families

Resta’s concerns about further delays are shared by relatives of other 9/11 victims. Earlier this year, Stephan Gerhardt made his sixth trip to Guantanamo. He said seeing convictions for the death of his younger brother Ralph is vital for him but something he wishes he no longer had to think about.

‘I want to concentrate on the memories,’ Gerhardt said. ‘I still have Ralph’s car. I’m trying to restore it and get it in pristine shape again.’ He also mentioned finding some of Ralph’s belongings with his parents, which brought back strong emotions.

Gerhardt said his ‘biggest concern’ is seeing Mohammed and his alleged co-conspirators convicted before they die. ‘They’re getting elderly… I don’t want them to pass away without being convicted, because that would be an injustice to all the family members,that we captured these people, but we never got to try them and convict them for the mass murder that they did of our loved ones.’

Mohammed has been charged with offenses including conspiracy and murder, with 2,976 victims listed on the charge sheet. He is accused of conceiving the idea of training pilots to fly commercial planes into buildings and taking those plans to Osama bin Laden, leader of the militant Islamist group al-Qaeda.

He has previously said he planned the ‘9/11 operation from A to Z.’ But days after the trial date was set for 2028, the military judge threw out confessions made by Mohammed to FBI agents on Guantanamo Bay after he was brought there from secret CIA prisons known as ‘black sites,’ which he had been held in for years. In his ruling, the judge described Mohammed’s treatment by the CIA as ‘extraordinary physical and mental abuse.’

Experts say the torture of Mohammed and his alleged co-conspirators has been the main reason for the lengthy delays in the case. ‘Every single issue has been litigated through the issue of torture,’ said Kasey McCall-Smith, an international law professor at Edinburgh University. She said the defendants were subjected to ‘years of abuse,’ including waterboarding and stress positions.

John Ryan, author of America’s Trial: Torture and the 9/11 Case on Guantanamo Bay, said last month’s ruling means prosecutors lose what they had described as their best evidence against Mohammed, but it is unclear how much it will impact the case. The prosecution has other evidence, Ryan says, including intercepted phone calls and secret recordings, but whether they can feature in the trial is not yet guaranteed.

During the George W. Bush administration, the US admitted using ‘enhanced interrogation techniques’ to acquire information from suspects but said these methods saved lives and never amounted to torture. President Barack Obama banned them on his second day in office.

Relatives of the victims say the torture of the defendants has so far blocked their right to justice. ‘If we would’ve not tortured them, the legal implications here would’ve been much, much simpler. They probably would’ve been sentenced to death a long time ago,’ said Gerhardt. ‘I can’t control what the government did, and we’ve got to live with the impacts.’

Both Gerhardt and Resta traveled to Guantanamo in early 2025 when Mohammed and two of his co-defendants had been due to plead guilty under a controversial deal struck with US government prosecutors, through which they would not face a death penalty trial. The BBC was with them at the base when the pleas were paused at the last minute after the US government argued that to ‘deprive the government and the American people of a public trial as to the respondents’ guilt and the possibility of capital punishment’ would cause ‘irreparable’ harm.

Legal wrangling over the validity of the deal is continuing. Some victims’ relatives viewed the deal as the only way through, while others criticized it as too lenient and lacking transparency. Resta said he supported the deal to secure convictions. ‘My philosophy is these guys are not the kind of people that should be out walking the streets, but as far as I’m concerned, they can just stay right where they are. I just want them convicted,’ he said.

Brett Eagleson, whose dad Bruce was killed in the attacks, said he wanted a full trial, not a plea deal. ‘It’s not so much that I’m taking an opinion on life or death for these prisoners, but I believe in the judicial system and I believe that the process works and I believe that a trial and discovery and sort of a public airing is the way to flush the truth out,’ he said. Eagleson described the situation on Guantanamo as ‘a mess’ and said he had decided not to attend any of the pre-trial proceedings there.

‘My overall feeling is a sense of betrayal from the US government and a sense of extreme frustration,’ he said. ‘They’ve botched every single part of this trial.’

With 25 years having passed since the attacks, he said that while 9/11 was a constant presence in his own life, to the wider public it was ‘becoming a historical event.’