Jury Decision Renews Debate on Civilian Terror Trials in US
19 November 2010
Ahmed Ghailani faces sentencing in January
This is IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English.
On Wednesday, a jury in federal court in New York City announced its decision in the case of Ahmed Ghailani. The Tanzanian was the first terrorism suspect held at Guantanamo ever to face trial in a civilian court instead of a military court.
He was charged in the al-Qaida bombings of the American embassies in Tanzania and Kenya on August seventh, nineteen ninety-eight. The attacks killed two hundred twenty-four people, including twelve Americans.
Government lawyers said Mr. Ghailani bought the truck and tanks of gas used in the bombing in Tanzania. The government brought two hundred eighty-five charges against him, mostly for murder.
But the twelve-member jury found him guilty of just one charge: conspiracy to destroy United States property with an explosive device. The crime carries a sentence of at least twenty years in prison and a possible life sentence.
Mr. Ghailani is thirty-six. He faces sentencing in January.
He was the fifth person found guilty in the embassy bombings. The other four were also tried in civilian court in New York and received life sentences in two thousand one. But they had never been held at the American military detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
Senator Joe Lieberman says the jury's decision makes it highly unlikely there will be many more civilian trials of Guantanamo detainees. Senator Lieberman, an Independent, heads the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee.
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