The Informer
Senior Member
- Jun 14, 2010
- 119
- 29
Mzanzibari huyu anaozea jela. Hawa marekani si wamkamate Osama basi mbona wameshukia bango Mtanzania huyu?
Judge sentences ex-Guantanamo detainee to life
Jan 25, 2011
(Reuters) - A U.S. judge on Tuesday sentenced to life in prison Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani, the first Guantanamo detainee to face a civilian trial, denying defense calls for leniency over his treatment by the CIA.
Ghailani, 36 was accused of joining the 1998 al Qaeda bomb attacks on U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania that killed 224 people. A U.S. jury found him guilty of one count of conspiracy to damage or destroy U.S. property with explosives but cleared him of 284 other conspiracy and murder charges.
His case in New York City has been seen as a test of President Barack Obama's approach to handling the 173 terrorism suspects held at the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, including Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the self-professed mastermind of the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States.
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 his efforts have met stiff opposition from critics who argue the prison is needed in the battle against Islamist extremists.
In a few short statements before handing down the sentence on Tuesday, Judge Lewis Kaplan dismissed defense claims throughout the trial that Ghailani was a dupe running errands for men he later discovered were al Qaeda operatives.
"Mr. Ghailani knew that people would die," Kaplan said.
Kaplan also declined to grant Ghailani any leniency on grounds he was repeatedly tortured while in U.S. custody and shared valuable intelligence with interrogators.
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.