Terrorist on Trial Acquitted on All But One Charge

In what was considered the test case for the potential civilian trial of Khalid Sheik Mohammed, the mastermind behind the September 11, 2001 atrocities, a terrorist with over 250 charges against him had them all found not guilty, except for one.

Ahmed Ghailani, who helped al Qaeda lead attacks in East Africa, was aqcuitted of 284 of 285 counts against him. Ghailani helped to bomb US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998, killing 224, including 12 Americans.

Ghalaini was found guilty of one conspiracy charge but the most potent, including murder, fell by the wayside.

"You deserve a lot of credit," U.S. District Judge Lewis A. Kaplan told the jurors after the verdicts were announced. "You have demonstrated also that American justice can be delivered calmly, deliberately and fairly, by ordinary people - people who are not beholden to any government, including this one."

Naturally, one has to wonder how this method of trial could fit for a war criminal like Khalid Sheik Mohammed and whether a non-citizen captured outside of the US really needs a civilian trial. Hopefully this will be the final nail in the coffin trying to try him here.





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