Guantanamo Detainee Faces Death Penalty for Embassy Blast

By Diane Smith
12:07, April 1st 2008
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Guantanamo Detainee Faces Death Penalty for Embassy Blast

Nearly ten years after his indictment in New York, a Tanzanian man was charged of war crimes in the bombing which took place in East Africa in 1998, the Pentagon said Monday.

The man identified as Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani, currently in his 30s, has allegedly provided material support to al-Qaeda militants who carried out the Aug. 7, 1998, suicide attack on the U.S. Embassy in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. At least 11 people were killed and more than 100 were injured in that suicide terrorist attack.

If the jury decides to convict him, Ghailani, the 14th Guantanamo imprisoned facing war crimes charges, will be sentenced to death.

The CIA held Ghailani nearly two years in secret before moving him to Guantanamo in 2006.

He was also charged for taking part at the al-Qaeda training camps in Afghanistan, working as Osama bin Laden’s bodyguard and forging documents which helped al-Qaeda members carry out their attacks.

Before being arrested in July 2004 in Pakistan during a raid on suspected al-Qaida hideouts in Punjab province, Ghailani was on the FBI's 25 Most Wanted list and a $5 million reward was put on his head.

After two years spent in CIA’s secret prisons, Ghailani was moved to the U.S. Navy base in southeast Cuba in September 2006. After only six months there, he acknowledged before a panel the fact that he had helped al-Qaeda in the embassy bombing.

"It was without my knowledge what they were doing, but I helped them. So I apologize to the United States government for what I did. And I'm sorry for what happened to those families who lost, who lost their friends and their beloved ones," were Ghailani word before a panel in March 2007, according to a Pentagon transcript.



Image Credit: www.cbc.ca
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