Garms, Ulrich --- "The preventive criminal justice strategy against terrorism and its human rights implications" [2018] ELECD 164; in Nowak, Manfred; Charbord, Anne (eds), "Using Human Rights to Counter Terrorism" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2018) 265

Book Title: Using Human Rights to Counter Terrorism

Editor(s): Nowak, Manfred; Charbord, Anne

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN: 9781784715267

Section: Chapter 7

Section Title: The preventive criminal justice strategy against terrorism and its human rights implications

Author(s): Garms, Ulrich

Number of pages: 35

Abstract/Description:

In 2010, Ahmed Ghailani was on trial before a Federal Court in New York accused of playing a key role in organizing the 1998 Al Qaida bombings of the US Embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, which killed 224 people. Ghailani had been captured in Pakistan in 2004 and detained at a secret detention facility of the US Central Intelligence Agency (a so-called ‘black site’) and at the naval base in Guantánamo for five years before being put on trial in a civilian court. Key evidence against Ghailani was found as a result of statements he made – under torture, according to the defence – during his detention at the black site. The Federal judge ruled that evidence inadmissible on constitutional grounds. As a result, the jury acquitted Ghailani on 284 out of 285 charges, including on the 224 counts of murder, and found him guilty on only one charge: conspiracy to blow up US government buildings. The judge nonetheless imposed a sentence of life without parole. The reaction to the outcome of this case showed that it was not only Ghailani who was on trial in the New York Federal Court, but also the idea that major terrorism cases can be tried before civilian courts, with defendants enjoying the full protection of constitutional rights and fair trial principles. US Attorney General Eric Holder concluded that ‘[t]oday’s sentencing of Ahmed Ghailani shows yet again the strength of the American justice system in holding terrorists accountable for their actions’.