Posted on 01/25/2011 11:00:25 AM PST by lbryce
Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani, the first former Guantánamo Bay camp detainee to be tried in the civilian court system, was sentenced to life in prison on Tuesday for his role in the 1998 bombings of two United States Embassies in East Africa.
The nearly simultaneous attacks in Nairobi, Kenya, and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, killed 224 people and wounded thousands.
Mr. Ghailani, 36, was convicted on Nov. 17 of a single count of conspiracy to destroy government buildings and property, while being acquitted of more than 280 charges of murder and conspiracy.
But the many acquittals seemed to carry little weight with the judge, Lewis A. Kaplan of United States District Court, who, before imposing the sentence, said that “Mr. Ghailani knew and intended that people would be killed as a result of his own actions and the conspiracy he joined.”
The judge rejected the defense’s request for a lesser sentence, saying, “The very purpose of the crime was to create terror by causing death and destruction.”
Mr. Ghailani, in the six years that the government says that he was a fugitive after the attacks, trained in Afghanistan with Al Qaeda, and later became a bodyguard for Osama bin Laden. He was captured in 2004 after a 14-hour gun battle with Pakistani authorities.
The Ghailani case had been seen as test of the Obama administration’s stated goal of trying Khalid Shaikh Mohammed and other detainees in federal court, a plan that was stalled in the face of strong local and Congressional opposition. The jury’s verdict seemed only to intensify that debate, with critics pointing to acquittals as evidence of the risks involved in trying such detainees in the civilian system.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
He shoulda got a ‘’ short rope tall tree ‘’ sentence
Heck, his fine is close to what OJ got in a civil suit.
Justice?
On the list for a pardon from the Kenyan
Would sure like to know the name, face, and address of the lone juror who would not convict.
Now watch Al-Qaeda kidnap someone or more in trade for the release of Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani.
A life sentence for that? Not to defend the guy, but this sentence sounds pretty political.
When I saw the headline I thought this was about Bill Ayers.
Put him in a cell, fill it with concrete.
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