The first former Guantanamo detainee to be tried in US civilian court was sentenced on Tuesday to life in prison without parole for his role in the 1998 bombings of two US embassies in Africa.
US President Barack Obama’s administration welcomed the jailing of Ahmed Ghailani, found guilty last year of conspiracy to damage or destroy US property in the truck bombings that killed 224 people at the embassies in Tanzania and Kenya.
“Today’s sentencing of Ahmed Ghailani shows yet again the strength of the American justice system in holding terrorists accountable for their actions,” US Attorney General Eric Holder said in statement.
The Tanzanian, who helped buy a truck and other equipment used in the embassy bombings, was found guilty of just one of 286 charges related to the al-Qaeda attacks.
However, New York Federal Court Judge Lewis Kaplan imposed the harshest possible sentence, despite defense pleas for leniency.
“Mr Ghailani knew and intended that people would be killed as a result of his own actions,” Kaplan said, rejecting defense arguments that the 36-year-old was an unwilling dupe in the plot.
“Today is about justice, not only for Mr Ghailani, but for the victims of his crimes,” Kaplan added.
Kaplan likewise rejected clemency on the grounds that Ghailani had been tortured by the CIA -before being sent to Guantanamo.
“The impact on him pales in comparison to the suffering and the horror” he caused, the judge said.
Dressed in a pale, button-down shirt, Ghailani entered the courtroom smiling and chatting with his lawyers. However, he hung his head as he listened to anguished statements from 11 victims before the sentencing.
“If I were in the position as a judge, I, with this kind of pain and anger, would sentence Ghailani to hell,” said a man who was severely injured in the Kenya bombing.
Invited to speak before hearing his fate, Ghailani declined.
The trial was a big step in Obama’s faltering plans to close the notorious US naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, where suspects — most of whom were rounded up in “war on terror” operations in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks — face military tribunals or are held indefinitely without charge.
US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton stressed the Obama administration was “absolutely committed to closing Guantanamo.”
At the time of the verdict, the jury’s surprise decision to acquit Ghailani on all but one charge quickly fueled political opposition to putting terror suspects in civilian courts.
“This verdict demonstrates the absolute insanity of the Obama administration’s decision to try al-Qaeda terrorists in civilian courts,” US Representative Peter King said.
However, Holder insisted the sentencing showed the US federal system worked.
“As this case demonstrates, we will not rest in bringing to justice terrorists who seek to harm the American people, and we will use every tool available to the government to do so,” Holder added.
For some of the victims testifying, no punishment could have been too great.
One woman described how her 16-year-old son never once talked about the trial — until she told him she was going to the sentencing.
“I would just go straight to that court and shoot whomever killed my dad,” she quoted her son as saying.
A former US diplomat, whose wife of 16 years died in the blast, said his life and career had been ruined and that he hoped Ghailani would “rot” in prison.
“I hope Ghailani dies conscious that his soul will be condemned -forever,” he said, his voice shaking.
Defense attorney Peter Quijano painted a radically different picture, insisting to the end that the young Tanzanian had been used by the al-Qaeda extremist network and “wept” when he realized what had happened.
Ghailani is “not a radical jihadi, not a terrorist, not a danger to society,” Quijano said. “He is someone certainly who harbors no hatred for the United States.”
Speaking outside the courthouse, senior prosecutor Preet Bharara called Ghailani a “vital member of the East Africa terror cell that murdered 224 innocent people and wounded thousands of others.”
“Ahmed Ghailani is a remorseless terrorist, mass murderer and al-Qaeda operative, and now he will spend the rest of his life in prison,” he said.
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