Opening Statements Expected in Trial of Guantanamo Detainee
VOA News 12 October 2010
Opening statements in the first civilian trial of a detainee from the U.S. detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba are expected to begin Tuesday in New York.
Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani is accused of conspiring with others in the 1998 bombings of two U.S. embassies in East Africa. Those attacks in Tanzania and Kenya killed 224 people, including 12 Americans.
His trial is expected to last three to six months. If convicted, Ghailani could face life in prison.
Prosecutors will proceed without the testimony of a key witness. A judge ruled last week that the witness must be excluded, because officials only learned about him as a direct result of statements Ghailani made while being interrogated in a secret CIA-run jail overseas. The judge ruled the witness could not be
Lawyers for Ghailani allege he was tortured while in CIA custody. He argued that any statements he made or evidence derived from those statements should not be allowed in court.
The U.S. says Ghailani was held and questioned by the CIA for two years after being captured in Pakistan in 2004. After the CIA detention, he was taken to Guantanamo Bay.
Ghailani's lawyers have argued that the length of his detention violated his rights. But a judge rejected those claims in July, saying Ghailani was being held in the interest of U.S. national security.
Prosecutors say Ghailani helped purchase the truck used in the Tanzania bombing, and altered the vehicle to allow more room for bomb materials inside.
Some information for this report was provided by AP.
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