Washington - US authorities have brought the first
Guantanamo Bay detainee to the United States to stand trial in
connection to the 1998 bombings of US embassies in Kenya and
Tanzania, the Justice Department announced Tuesday.
Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani, a Tanzanian national held at Guantanamo
Bay since September 2006, arrived early Tuesday in New York to face
criminal charges.
Ghailani is being held at the Metropolitan Correctional Centre and
is expected to make his initial appearance in a Manhattan federal
court later Tuesday. He has been charged with conspiracy to commit
murder in the deaths of 224 people, including 12 Americans.
US authorities allege the al-Qaeda operative helped build one of
the bombs used in the attacks in Dar es Salaam and Nairobi. He became
the first detainee transferred to the United States from Guantanamo
under President Barack Obama's plans to close the facility by early
next year.
'The Justice Department has a long history of securely detaining
and successfully prosecuting terror suspects through the criminal
justice system, and we will bring that experience to bear in seeking
justice in this case,' Attorney General Eric Holder said.
Ghailani had already been indicted in the killings of 224 people.
He now faces a total of 286 criminal counts, including conspiring
with Osama bin Laden and al-Qaeda to kill Americans anywhere in the
world, the Justice Department said. If convicted, he could be
sentenced to 20 years to life in prison, or possible execution.
Ghailani was captured in Pakistan in 2004 and later sent to
Guantanamo. His trial in New York will serve as a test of Obama's
plans to close the prison camp and transfer some detainees for trial
in the United States.
Obama has also announced plans to resume a reformed version of the
military tribunals at Guantanamo established by former president
George W Bush for trying terror suspects.
Obama, however, has faced fierce opposition from Congress to
transferring any detainees to US soil. Days after taking office in
January, Obama established a task force to map out a plan for closing
Guantanamo and dealing with the 240 detainees there. That task force
is due to report in July.
USA
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