Life Sentence for Embassy Bomber

He is the first Guantanamo Bay detainee to be tried in America’s civilian courts, and on Tuesday a U.S. district judge sentenced 36-year-old Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani to life in prison without parole for plotting attacks on two U.S. embassies in Africa.  —KA

The New York Times:

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.”

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AP / Geo TV

Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani as he appeared in a photo shown on television in Pakistan in 2004.