A FORMER bodyguard for Osama bin Laden has been sentenced to life in jail in a ruling hailed by the Obama administration as vindication of its efforts to try terror suspects from Guantanamo Bay in US civilian courts.
Ahmed Ghailani received a life sentence without the possibility of parole for his part in the US Embassy bombings of 1998 in Kenya and Tanzania. He was acquitted last year on 285 of 286 charges because evidence against him was obtained through torture, but the judge said his treatment by the CIA “pales in comparison to the suffering and horror” of the embassy attacks.
The sentencing by Judge Lewis Kaplan in New York marked the end of a crucial test case that will reopen debate in the US on whether to end the controversial use of military tribunals at Guantanamo Bay in favour of civilian trials.
Ghailani received the maximum possible sentence after his acquittal on every murder charge brought against him ruled out the death penalty. Eric Holder, the US Attorney General, said his life term “shows yet again the strength of the American justice system in holding terrorists accountable for their actions”.
epublicans including the former Vice President Dick Cheney have accused Mr Obama and Mr Holder of naivety and negligence in trying to grant detainees held as “enemy combatants” the fair trials guaranteed under US law.
Ghailani, 36, was convicted in December of conspiring to destroy US government buildings after a trial in which a key witness was barred from testifying because his identity was learnt through torture. Evidence showing that he helped to buy bomb parts and knew their intended use was allowed at the trial, however.
The embassy attacks killed 224 people including 12 US citizens and marked the moment al-Qaeda became a household name in the US. “It was a cold-blooded killing and maiming of innocent people on an enormous scale,” Judge Kaplan said.
Mr Obama vowed to close Guantanamo Bay within a year of taking office. Two years later it remains open, and the administration has all but accepted that some “high-value detainees” may have to be held there indefinitely.
However, the sentencing may embolden the White House to tackle the issue again.
Be the first to comment