Ahmed Ghailani
Ahmed Ghailani | |
---|---|
USP McCreary |
Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani (
Ghailani was transported from Guantanamo Bay to New York City to await trial in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York in June 2009.[8] When the case came to trial, the judge disallowed the testimony of a key witness. On November 17, 2010, a jury found him guilty of one count of conspiracy, but acquitted him of 284 other charges including all murder counts.[9] Critics of the Obama administration said the verdict proves civilian courts cannot be trusted to prosecute terrorists since it shows a jury might acquit a defendant entirely.[9] Supporters of the trial have said that the conviction and the stiff sentencing prove that the federal justice system works.[10]
On January 25, 2011, U.S. District Judge
Early life
Ghailani was born in 1974 in
1998 U.S. embassy bombings
After joining
Wanted and arrest for terrorist activities
On May 26, 2004, United States Attorney General
American
His arrest was made by the Intelligence Bureau Pakistan in a raid with police commandos. On July 25, 2004, a nearly eight-hour battle ensued in the town of
Some press reports (including the American magazine
Combatant Status Review
Ghailani was among the 60% of prisoners who participated in the tribunal hearings.[20] A Summary of Evidence memo was prepared for the tribunal of each detainee. The Ghailani memo accused him of the following:[21]
The Department of Defense announced on August 9, 2007, that all fourteen of the "high-value detainees" who had been transferred to Guantanamo from the CIA's black sites, had been officially classified as "enemy combatants".[22] Although judges Peter Brownback and Keith J. Allred had ruled two months earlier that only "illegal enemy combatants" could face military commissions, the Department of Defense waived the qualifier and said that all fourteen men could now face charges before Guantanamo military commissions.[23][24]
Charged before a military commission
The al-Qaeda suspect alleged to have been involved in the
In June 2009, Ghailani was transferred to New York to face trial in a federal court.[27] The Department of Justice, under U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder, directed the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, Preet Bharara, not to seek the death penalty in an October 2009 memorandum.[28]
Transfer to the United States
On August 31, 2009, Corrections One, a
On February 10, 2010,
On April 23, 2010, a 52-page unclassified summary of Ghailani's 2007 Guantanamo interrogations was published in preparation for his trial.[36]
Benjamin Weiser, writing in
On October 6, 2010, in a short ruling that the judge said he would expand upon later that day, it was determined that a key witness, the Tanzanian Hussein Abebe, who may have issued statements crucial to implicating Ghailani during the time he was under CIA custody, would not be testifying in the trial. Judge Kaplan agreed to delay the start of the trial until the following Tuesday, October 12, 2010, pending a possible appeal of that ruling. On October 11, 2010, the government announced it would not appeal Judge Kaplan's ruling. Steve Zissou, one of Ghailani's lawyers, commented that the government's decision not to appeal was "a significant victory for the Constitution".
On November 17, 2010, Ghailani was convicted of conspiracy, but acquitted of all the other charges.[40] On January 25, 2011, Ghailani was sentenced to life in prison.[41]
On May 10, 2019, Ghailani was transferred from ADX Florence in Colorado, to United States Penitentiary, McCreary, in Kentucky as BOP number 02476-748.
References
- ^ a b Richey, Warren (January 25, 2011). "Ahmed Ghailani gets life sentence for Al Qaeda bombing of US embassies". Christian Science Monitor. Archived from the original on January 31, 2011. Retrieved January 26, 2011.
- ^ a b Hays, Tom (January 25, 2011). "Gitmo Detainee Gets Life Sentence in Embassy Plot". Associated Press. Retrieved January 26, 2011.
- Monterey Institute of International Studies; accessed November 19, 2014.
- ^ "Superseding Indictment (U.S v. bin Laden, et al.)". FindLaw. March 2001. Retrieved June 9, 2009.
- ^ Office of the Director of National Intelligence. Archived from the original(PDF) on November 19, 2009.
- ^ Bush: CIA holds terror suspects in secret prisons, CNN, September 7, 2006.
- ^ Peter Finn (February 16, 2009). "4 Cases Illustrate Guantanamo Quandaries: Administration Must Decide Fate of Often-Flawed Proceedings, Often-Dangerous Prisoners". The Washington Post. p. A01. Retrieved February 11, 2009.
- ^ Finn, Peter (June 10, 2009). "Guantanamo Bay Detainee Brought to U.S. for Trial". The Washington Post. Retrieved July 6, 2009.
- ^ a b Charlie Savage (November 18, 2010). "Terror Verdict Tests Obama's Strategy on Civilian Trials". The New York Times.
- ^ Daphne Eviatar (November 18, 2010). "Ghailani Verdict Makes the Case for Federal Courts". Archived from the original on 2010-12-03.
- Monterey Institute of International Studies. Archived from the original(PDF) on 2012-09-06.
- ^
Tom McGhee (February 24, 2013). "Clerk's path to U.S. District Court in Denver wound through Gitmo". Denver Post. Archivedfrom the original on March 1, 2013.
- Denver Post. Archived from the originalon August 12, 2022.
- ^ a b Key al-Qaeda suspect arrested, BBC, July 30, 2004.
- ^ Transcript: Ashcroft, Mueller news conference, CNN.com, May 26, 2004.
- ^ a b Pither, Kerry. Dark Days: The Story of Four Canadians Tortured in the Name of Fighting Terror (2008).
- ^ Profile Archived 2006-04-26 at the Wayback Machine, RewardsforJustice.net; accessed 19 November 2014.
- ^ "PAKISTAN FOR BUSH: July Surprise?", The New Republic, July 29, 2004.
- ^ "Liberia's Taylor gave aid to al-Qaeda, UN probe finds", The Boston Globe, August 4, 2004.
- , dod.mil, September 4, 2007.
- OARDEC (March 17, 2007). "Verbatim Transcript of Open Session CSRT Hearing for ISN 10012" (PDF). United States Department of Defense. Retrieved October 20, 2004.
- Time magazine. Archived from the originalon October 19, 2012. Retrieved May 25, 2022. mirror
- ^ Sergeant Sara Wood (June 4, 2007). "Charges Dismissed Against Canadian at Guantanamo". Department of Defense. Retrieved 2007-06-07.
- ^ Sergeant (June 4, 2007). "Judge Dismisses Charges Against Second Guantanamo Detainee". Department of Defense. Retrieved 2007-06-07.
- ^ "Tanzania bombing suspect charged with war crimes". CNN. March 31, 2008. Retrieved March 31, 2008.
- ^ Daphne Eviatar (May 29, 2008). "Covington & Burling partner takes on defense of Guantanamo death penalty case". AM Law Daily. Retrieved December 10, 2008.
- ^ "Guantanamo detainee arrives in NY". BBC Online. BBC. June 9, 2009. Archived from the original on June 10, 2009. Retrieved June 9, 2009.
- ^ Ryan, Jason (October 5, 2009). "Holder Decides No Death Penalty for U.S. Embassy Bomber". ABC News.
- ^ Kathryn Lynch-Morin (August 31, 2009). "Profile of 10 U.S.-bound Gitmo detainees". Corrections One. Archived from the original on July 8, 2011. Retrieved August 2, 2009.
- ^ Chad Jones (November 23, 2009). "Guantanamo Detainee Can't Keep Military Lawyers". The Wall Street Journal. Archived from the original on November 23, 2009.
- ^ Larry Neumeister (November 23, 2009). "Military can reassign Gitmo detainee's lawyers". Associated Press. Archived from the original on May 24, 2024.
- ^ Christine Kearney (November 23, 2009). "Guantanamo suspect denied military lawyers in N.Y." Reuters. Archived from the original on November 21, 2009.
- ^ Benjamin Weiser (November 23, 2009). "Bomb Suspect Can't Keep His Military Lawyers". The New York Times. Archived from the original on June 29, 2018.
- ^ Benjamin Weiser (February 10, 2010). "U.S. Told to Review Files on Terror Case Detention". The New York Times. Retrieved February 11, 2010.
- ^ "USA: SEE NO EVIL, GOVERNMENT TURNS THE OTHER WAY AS JUDGES MAKE FINDINGS ABOUT TORTURE AND OTHER ABUSE" (PDF). Amnesty International. February 2011. Archived from the original (PDF) on December 3, 2022.
- ^ Benjamin Weiser (April 23, 2010). "Court Filing Sheds Light on Bin Laden Bodyguard". The New York Times. Archived from the original on January 4, 2013. Retrieved April 24, 2010.
The exchange, straightforward and as banal as any job interview might be, is recounted in a declassified 52-page summary of an interrogation of Mr. Ghailani by federal agents, which was made public Friday night in a filing in Federal District Court in Manhattan. The filing is part of the government's response to Mr. Ghailani's demand that his indictment be dismissed because of "outrageous government conduct". He was detained for nearly five years in secret C.I.A. prisons and later at the naval base at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba.
- ^ "Conspirator's Path From Poverty as a Boy in Zanzibar to bin Laden's Side". The New York Times. January 23, 2011. Archived from the original on December 3, 2022.
- ^ Daphne Eviatar (October 1, 2010). First Guantanamo Trial in New York City: So Not Scary. Archived from the original on December 20, 2012.
- ^ Human Rights First (September 30, 2010). "Gitmo Trial Hits NYC; Manhattan Yawns". Archived from the original on 2021-12-22.
- New York Times. Archived from the originalon May 18, 2017.
- Christian Science Monitor. Archived from the originalon January 13, 2022.
External links
- Guantanamo man loses torture bid to avoid U.S. trial, reuters.com, May 10, 2010
- Superseding Indictment (U.S v. bin Laden, et al.), findlaw.com; accessed November 19, 2014
- Lawyer: Feds Chose Torture Over Trial for Detainee, nytimes.com, January 11, 2010
- Call to throw out Guantanamo case, aljazeera.net, January 12, 2010
- Chronology Amnesty International, amnesty.ca; accessed November 19, 2014
- Jury Appears Deadlocked in Civilian Trial (video report), democracynow.org, November 17, 2010; accessed November 19, 2014.