The first civilian trial of a former Guantanamo prisoner has ended in an embarrassing setback for prosecutors with the acquittal of a Tanzanian on all but one charge in the 1998 bombings of two US embassies.
Ahmed Ghailani could still face life in prison for conspiracy to destroy government property, but a federal jury cleared him of all other 285 charges, including murder and conspiracy to commit murder.
Sentencing was set for Jan. 25.
“We respect the jury’s verdict and are pleased that Ahmed Ghailani now faces a minimum of 20 years in prison and a potential life sentence for his role in the embassy bombings,” a spokesman for the US Department of Justice said.
However, critics branded it a failure of the US administration’s plans for civilian trials of Guantanamo prisoners — including Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the self-proclaimed mastermind of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
The top Republican on the House Intelligence Committee, Pete Hoekstra, said the trial proved that prosecuting Guantanamo detainees in civilian courts was “a mistake.”
“This case was supposed to be the easy one, and the [US President Barack] Obama administration failed. The Gitmo cases from here-on-out will only get more difficult,” he said in a statement.
After five days of deliberations, a federal jury in a US district court in New York found Ghailani guilty of conspiracy to destroy US property, which carries a sentence of at least 20 years and up to life in prison, but cleared him of the most serious charges.
The decision marked a blow to Obama’s plans to close down Guantanamo and move inmates into the civilian justice system. It was also likely to revive the acrimonious debate over how the closure should take place.
During the four-week trial, prosecutors painted the baby-faced 36-year-old as a scheming plotter who helped al-Qaeda bombers prepare the truck bombs that slammed almost simultaneously into the Kenyan and Tanzanian embassies, killing 224 people and injuring thousands more.
His defense attorney, Peter Quijano, called no witnesses and Ghailani did not take the stand.
Instead, through cross-examination and a blistering closing argument, Quijano sought to undermine the credibility of witnesses produced by the government and he portrayed Ghailani as an innocent dupe who was used by al-Qaeda, but who knew nothing of the plot.
Ghailani “will face, and we will seek, the maximum sentence of life without parole when he is sentenced in January,” US Attorney Preet Bharara said.
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