Ghailani Seeks Leniency in Sentencing for Role in Africa Embassy Bombings

Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani, cleared by a New York jury in 284 out of 285 criminal counts for the 1998 bombings of two embassies in Africa, is asking for leniency at his sentencing, saying he was mistreated by the U.S.

Ghailani, 36, a Tanzanian citizen, was the first Guantanamo Bay detainee to face a civilian trial in the U.S., charged in the near-simultaneous bombings of U.S. embassies in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, and Nairobi, Kenya, that killed 224 people, including 12 U.S. citizens, on Aug. 7, 1998.

He was accused of taking part in a worldwide terrorist plot with Osama bin Laden to kill U.S. nationals, conspiring to use weapons of mass destruction and 224 counts of murder. A jury in federal court in Manhattan found him guilty Nov. 17 of just one count -- conspiring to destroy buildings and property of the U.S., which carries a minimum sentence of 20 years in prison.

His lawyers asked the judge who presided over the trial on to make an exception known as a “downward departure.” The Dec. 13 court filing is sealed from public view, according to an order by the court citing national security concerns.

“The defendant sought a downward departure because he was ‘mistreated’ while in United States custody,” prosecutors said in court papers filed yesterday in which they quoted from Ghailani’s sentencing submission to the federal probation office.

Ghailani also “requested a downward departure for having provided information to the United States while in Central Intelligence Agency and then in Department of Defense custody,” according to the filing by prosecutors.

Jan. 25 Sentencing

He faced a mandatory life sentence if he’d been convicted of any of the 224 murder counts. U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan in Manhattan is scheduled to sentence him on Jan. 25.

Prosecutors said yesterday that U.S. probation officials opposed Ghailani’s request for leniency, citing the seriousness of the crime, the impact the bombings continue to have on their victims and “Ghailani’s lack of compassion for human life.”

Probation officials calculated a life term was appropriate. That “upward departure” is what prosecutors yesterday recommended to Kaplan.

“The bombing conspiracy of which the defendant was convicted was an appalling crime that culminated in 224 murders and thousands of injuries, many of them severe,” prosecutors said.

“The scale of this killing and maiming was tragically vast,” they said, calling Ghailani “a central participant in an al-Qaeda terror cell.”

Peter Quijano, Ghailani’s lawyer, didn’t immediately return a voice-mail message left at his office after regular business hours.

‘Black Sites’

The bombings killed 213 people in the Kenya blast and 11 people died in the Tanzania attack. Witnesses testified that more than 4,500 people were also injured in both blasts.

Ghailani was captured in Pakistan in July 2004, held by the Central Intelligence Agency for more than two years and subjected to so-called enhanced interrogation techniques, which the defense called torture, at “black sites” operated by the CIA. He was later transferred to the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo.

During a 2001 trial in federal court in New York, four co- defendants were convicted of all charges, including joining an al-Qaeda conspiracy to kill U.S. nationals and all 224 counts of murder.

The case is U.S. v. Ghailani, 98-cr-01023, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York (Manhattan).

To contact the reporter on this story: Patricia Hurtado in New York atpathurtado@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editor responsible for this story: David E. Rovella at drovella@bloomberg.net.