One of the world’s most notorious defendants, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, sat in the front row of the U.S. war tribunal at Guantanamo Bay Naval Base in Cuba and appeared to be listening intently.

“Can you confirm that Mr. Mohammed pleads guilty to all charges and specifications without exceptions or substitutions?” the judge asked his lawyer as Mohammed looked on.

“Yes, we can, your honor,” the lawyer responded.

Mohammed, 59, sat in court with a beard dyed bright orange and wearing a headdress, top and trousers that bore little resemblance to the photo. Soon after his arrest it was circulated that 2003.

Mohammed, the accused mastermind of the 9/11 terror attacks in the United States – more than 23 years ago, an attack that killed nearly 3,000 people and was described by the US government as “the most egregious crime in the United States” – was due to plead guilty this week. American Soils in Modern History.”

But two days later, as Muhammad prepared to formally make his decision — the product of a controversial agreement he reached with U.S. government prosecutors — he watched silently as the judge said the proceedings, under the federal appeals order, Paused. court.

This week is expected to be a landmark week for a case that has dragged on for a decade. Now, it continues into an uncertain future as new complications emerge.

“This will be a trial forever,” said a relative of one of the 9/11 victims.

Mohammed has previously said he planned the 9/11 operations “from start to finish” – conceived the idea of ​​training pilots to fly commercial planes into buildings and presented those plans to the leader of the radical Islamist group Islamic State, O. Sama bin Laden. Al Qaeda.

But he has not yet been able to formally plead guilty to the crime in court. This week’s pause comes amid controversy over an agreement reached last year by U.S. prosecutors and his legal team under which Muhammad would not face a death penalty trial for pleading guilty.

For several months, the U.S. government Attempt to revoke the agreementIt said allowing the deal to proceed would cause “irreparable” harm to it and the American public. Supporters of the deal see it as the only way to resolve the case, which has been complicated by the torture of Mohammed and others in U.S. custody, and question whether it tainted evidence.

After prosecutors filed a last-minute appeal, a three-judge panel of the federal appeals court called for a delay to give them time to consider the arguments before making a decision.

But the victims’ families have taken weekly flights to the base to watch the confessions from an observation deck, where thick glass separates them and members of the media from the rest of the sprawling, high-security courtroom.

Attendees earned their spot at this week’s meeting through a lottery system. They arranged childcare and paid for kennels for their pets—knowing they could be canceled at any time. They were informed Thursday night during an interview with media at a base hotel that the request would not proceed.

Elizabeth Miller’s father, New York City firefighter Douglas Miller, was killed in the attack when she was six years old. She said she supported the deal moving forward to “bring about a final outcome” but acknowledged that there were other families who felt the same way.

“What’s frustrating is that every time this happens over and over again, every camp gets their hopes up and then they get dashed again,” she said, as other relatives nodded in agreement.

“It’s like a permanent edge…like a constant whiplash.”

This week’s suspension is just the latest in a series of delays, complications and controversies at the base, where the U.S. military has held detainees for 23 years.

The military prison at Guantanamo Bay was established during the “war on terror” following the 9/11 attacks that Muhammad was accused of masterminding. The first detainees were brought there on January 11, 2002.

Then-President George W. Bush issued a military order establishing military tribunals to try non-U.S. citizens, saying they could be detained indefinitely without charge and could not legally challenge their detention.

Wearing bright orange jumpsuits, the 20 men were taken to a makeshift detention camp called X-Ray, where cells have exposed cages and beds on the floor.

The camp, now long abandoned and surrounded by barbed wire, is overgrown with weeds, with a wooden watchtower overgrown and a sign next to the fence reading “Keep Out” in red text.

Although conditions at Guantanamo have improved, it still faces criticism from the United Nations and human rights groups over its treatment of detainees. It continues to pose a challenge to U.S. officials and advocates who want to shut it down.

As president, Barack Obama pledged to close prisons during his term, saying they were contrary to American values. These efforts are being revived under the Biden administration.

Unlike Mohammed, most of those held there since the prison’s inception have never been charged with any crime.

Current detention facilities are off-limits to journalists and only those with security clearance can enter.

Within a short drive there’s an Irish pub, a McDonald’s, a bowling alley and a museum serving the base’s military personnel and contractors – most of whom have never entered the prison complex.

As legal teams, journalists and family members gathered at the base to comply with Mohammed’s scheduled request, a covert operation was conducted early in the morning to transport 11 Yemeni detainees from the base to Oman for resettlement.

After the transfer, the base once held nearly 800 detainees, but now only 15 remain, the lowest number in the base’s history.

Of those who remain, all but six have been charged or convicted of war crimes, with lawyers fighting complex legal battles in the base’s high-security courtroom.

With the court dismissal on Friday, the judge said Mohammed’s request, if allowed to proceed, would now fall to the next U.S. administration.