A US judge was expected to hand a life sentence to Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani, the first Guantanamo detainee to face a civilian trial, as his case came to a close yesterday.
A federal jury in November delivered a mixed verdict, convicting the Tanzanian man of one count of conspiracy to damage or destroy US property with explosives, but clearing him of 284 other conspiracy and murder charges.
He was accused of joining the 1998 al-Qaeda bomb attacks on US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania that killed 224 people and faces a mandatory minimum of 20 years behind bars.
TEST
His five-week trial in New York City was seen as a test of US President Barack Obama’s approach to handling the 173 terrorism suspects now held at the US naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, including Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the self-professed mastermind of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the US.
Obama vowed during his 2008 presidential campaign to close the prison at Guantanamo Bay, which has drawn international condemnation for the treatment of detainees, but has faced stiff opposition from critics who argue that it is needed in the battle against Islamist extremists.
CULPABLE STATE
The judge in the case, Lewis Kaplan, on Friday dismissed defense requests to overturn Ghailani’s conviction or grant him a new trial, suggesting the evidence showed Ghailani was a knowing participant in the plot.
“The evidence of Ghailani’s culpable mental state and intent was plentiful,” Kaplan wrote.
The defense had painted Ghailani as a dupe, running errands for men he later discovered were al-Qaeda operatives. At trial, the defense team conceded Ghailani bought gas tanks and a truck later used in the attacks, but said he had no idea what they would be used for.
FBI officials, however, testified for the prosecution that they found traces of explosives on his clothes and a blasting cap in his armoire.
INTERROGATIONS
However, the jury was only permitted to hear part of the prosecution’s case against Ghailani because his statements and other evidence were deemed tainted by two years of “enhanced interrogations” he underwent at undisclosed CIA locations following his 2004 arrest. His defense says he was tortured.
Ghailani was moved to Guantanamo Bay in late 2006 and transferred to New York in June 2009 to stand trial.
In their sentencing submission to the judge, prosecutors said Ghailani was told of one of the impending attacks a week before it happened and days before he and a handful of al--Qaeda operatives fled Africa.
Ghailani’s lawyers asked the judge not to hand a life sentence to Ghailani because, they said, he was repeatedly tortured while in US custody and had shared valuable intelligence with the interrogators.
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