U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder says the alleged mastermind of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, will be tried in a federal civilian court in New York City.
Holder said four others accused in the World Trade Center attacks also will face trial in the New York court, just blocks from where the towers fell.
The attorney general says he intends to seek the death penalty for each of the alleged conspirators.
U.S. President Barack Obama said earlier Friday that Mohammed "will be subject to the most exacting demands of justice."
But Republicans and other critics argue that moving the cases to a U.S. criminal court from the military prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, could give the detainees legal rights they say the suspects do not deserve.