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In a stunning setback to President Obama’s approach to trying terrorism suspects, the first Guantanamo detainee to be prosecuted in civilian court nearly walked free when a jury found him not guilty on all but one of 285 terror-related counts yesterday.
Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani, a Tanzanian, beat weighty charges such as conspiracy to kill US nationals and conspiracy to use weapons of mass destruction in the 1998 attacks on US embassies in Nairobi, Kenya, and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, which claimed 224 lives.
He was convicted only on Count 5, a minor charge of conspiracy to damage or destroy US property with explosives.
But that count includes a subsection that asks jurors if the defendant’s conduct caused death of persons other than his co-conspirators — and the jury said “yes.”
That lone guilty verdict is enough to send the terrorist to jail for at least 20 years under federal sentencing guidelines, and maybe for the rest of his life.
Ghailani, 36, smiled during the eight minutes it took to read all the charges.
“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 Justice Department said in a statement.
The failure to pin more serious convictions on Ghailani is likely to be seen as a setback for Obama’s plans to close Guantanamo and try 174 terrorism suspects in civilian courts.
The detainees at Guantanamo include Khalid Sheik Mohammed, the accused mastermind of the Sept. 11 attacks.
While the feds obtained a conviction, it was not on the more serious charges they needed to set a precedent for future prosecutions.
The major problem was prosecutors’ inability to establish how much Ghailani knew about the attacks or his involvement in the bombings.
Defense attorneys were elated at the jury’s conclusion, and said they plan to appeal the single conviction.
“This verdict is a reaffirmation that this nation’s judicial system is the greatest ever devised. It is truly a system of laws and not men,” said defense lawyer Peter Quijano.
Ghailani was transferred from Guantanamo Bay to New York in June 2009.
Following several tense days of deliberations, prosecutors were lucky to get even the one conviction, after seeing their case nearly implode in a mistrial.
The panel, which deliberated for a week, reached its decision two days after one juror asked to be excused, saying she was being “attacked” for her dissenting opinion.
But the jurors went back to work and reached the single unanimous verdict.
“You have reason to feel proud,” said Judge Lewis Kaplan. “You have all done your duty. Our nation is a better place. I and everyone else have been struck by the way you did your duty. You reviewed the evidence with great care.”
The government accused Ghailani of buying seven gas cylinders used in the bombs and the truck used to transport them.