Al-Qaeda terrorist Ahmed Ghailani killed 224 people including 12 American in the 1998 bombings of the American embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. Today he was acquitted of over 240 charges including murder in Manhatten NY federal court. US District Judge Lewis Kaplan refused to allow key testimony against Ghailani to be entered into the trail. This testimony linked the sale of the TNT used in the bombings to Ghailani. The reason was that the witness was “housed in a facility known to have tortured prisoners”. Not that the witness had been tortured to obtain testimony, just that he’d been housed at Guantanamo Bay.
Ghailani is scheduled for sentencing on his lone conviction, conspiracy to destroy U.S. buildings and property. The Justice Department is pleased with the conviction and is hoping for a sentence of Life without the possibility of parole.
“We respect the jury’s verdict and are pleased that Ahmed Ghailani now faces a minimum of 20 years in prison and a potential life sentence,” the department said in a terse statement.
Rep. Pete King (R-L.I.), who has been a staunch opponent of such trials, called the mixed verdict “a disgraceful miscarriage of justice.”
“It shows how totally wrong the Obama administration is to bring a case like this to civilian court,” he said. “He was acquitted of 224 counts of murder.”
“If this had been before a military tribunal, evidence that was blocked in this case would have been admissible,” King was quick to point out.
