Trial of Guantanamo detainee begins in civilian court
By DPA, IANSMonday, October 18, 2010
NEW YORK - The US Tuesday charged Guantanamo detainee Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani with conspiring to bomb its embassies in Tanzania and Kenya and to kill Americans.
Ghailani was taken before a US district court in Lower Manhattan to face the first trial in a civilian court of a Guantanamo detainee since the US detention centre in Cuba opened in January 2002.
\”Ghailani is guilty of conspiring to bomb the US embassies in Tanzania and Kenya in 1998,\” US Prosecutor Nicholas Lewin told the court in an opening statement. \”He is guilty to conspire to murder Americans, he is guilty to murder 224 people beyond reasonable doubt.\”
Ghailani, 36, flanked by six defence lawyers, sat behind the bench occupied by the prosecution in the court room of Judge Lewis Kaplan. Dressed in a light beige jumper and wearing dark pants, he listened to his lawyers\’ explanations as the court began the case against him.
Lewin said the US government intends to call witnesses and present documents and physical evidence that the Tanzanian plotted the bombings of the US embassies in Tanzania and Kenya Aug 7, 1998.
Ghailani\’s lawyers urged jurors, whose selection was completed hours before the trial was to begin, to question all the evidence to be introduced by the prosecution.
\”He\’s not only presumed innocent, he is innocent,\” one lawyer said addressing the jurors.
