No Dismissal in Terror Case on Claim of Torture in Jail

[sabra]

Source: NY Times

A federal judge in Manhattan declined on Monday to dismiss charges against a man accused in a terrorism case whose lawyers claimed his rights were violated when he was tortured in secret jails run by the Central Intelligence Agency.

The defendant, Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani, has been charged with conspiring in the 1998 bombings of two American embassies in East Africa. The attacks, which were carried out by Al Qaeda, killed 224 people. Mr. Ghailani later worked as a bodyguard for Osama bin Laden, the authorities have said.

After Mr. Ghailani was captured in 2004, he was held in the C.I.A.’s so-called black sites until 2006, when he was transferred to the naval base at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. Last year, he became the first Guantánamo detainee moved into the civilian court system for trial.

Although details of his treatment while in C.I.A. custody are classified, he has said in court papers that he was subjected to cruel “enhanced interrogation techniques.” His lawyers say that his treatment was unquestionably “torture,” and argued that the techniques were so “shocking to our traditional sense of justice” that charges should be dismissed on grounds of “outrageous governmental conduct.”

“Indeed, while it is rare to find a case that is ‘so outrageous’ to warrant the ultimate sanction of dismissal,” his lawyers wrote, “if this is not such a case, then what is?”

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/11/nyregion/11ghailani.html

[merh]

1. Very rarely does abuse at the hands of captors result in

dismissal of the charges.

It does make any information obtained during the abuse inadmissible against the accused.

[Vinnie From Indy]

2. Future SC Justice Kagan has written an opinion that supports

the right of the President to NEVER let this guy see a courtroom and hold him in a cage for the rest of his time on Earth. Apparently, based on her writing, it makes no difference to her if the tortured prisoner is an American or not. If the Pres. or some faceless official declares you an "enemy combatant", you are "disappeared" and probably given multiple tickets to ride "Ol' Dunky" the Waterboard at an undisclosed C.I.A. theme park/prison.

[earcandle]

3. This is not justice, this is politics. What have we become? And for whom?