Judge Bars Major Witness From Civilian Terrorism Trial

[groovedaddy]

Source: New York Times

Minutes before a major terrorism trial was about to begin, a
federal judge barred prosecutors in Manhattan on Wednesday
from using a key witness.

The government had acknowledged it learned about the witness
from the defendant, Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani, while he was
being interrogated while being held in a secret overseas jail
run by the C.I.A.

The ruling by Judge Lewis A. Kaplan would be a setback for
the Obama administration's goal of trying former detainees in
civilian courts because it would limit the kinds of evidence
prosecutors can introduce. It was not immediately clear if
prosecutors would appeal the ruling.

The defendant, Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani, was scheduled to begin
trial on Wednesday in Federal District Court on charges he
conspired in the 1998 bombings of the American Embassies in
Nairobi, Kenya, and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. The attacks,
orchestrated by Al Qaeda, killed 224 people.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/07/nyregion/07ghailani.html?hp&emc=na

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/07/nyregion/07ghailani.html?hp&emc=na

[The Stranger]

1. Interesting.

Kaplan let the case go to trial despite the fact that the defendant was tortured and held for years without hearing, habeas corpus, and his being deprived of a veritable Congressional library of legal treatises of fundamental rights.

But then he begins making rulings that are clearly going to have an impact upon any trial of bigger figures in the Government's cages.

Is he calling the Government's bluff and taking advantage of having the first such trial to leave his mark on how it could be conducted?

He can always reverse his ruling, I believe, that this defendant was deprived of fundamental rights.

A bit of cat and mouse at play here?

[bemildred]

2. Yes. Swallowing elephants whole, straining at gnats.

“the government has failed to prove that Abebe’s testimony is sufficiently attenuated from Ghailani’s coerced statements to permit its receipt in evidence.”

"Coercion" was used, "coerced statements" may be taken, that we will overlook, but by Dog you will not use the result of them in a court of law. I do wonder what he is up to.

[saigon68]

3. Unreal

[DirkGently]

5. "Swallowing elephants whole, straining at gnats." Excellent.

[OnyxCollie]

4. K&R. nt

[CHIMO]

6. First civilian trial of a Guantánamo Bay detainee halted

Source: guardian.co.uk

The first civilian trial of a Guantánamo Bay detainee was delayed today after a Manhattan judge told prosecutors they could not call their star witness.

Judge Lewis Kaplan blocked the government in Washington from calling a man whom authorities said sold explosives to Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani, the defendant. Defence lawyers say investigators learned about the witness only after Ghailani underwent harsh interrogation at a secret CIA camp between 2004 and 2006.

"The court has not reached this conclusion lightly," Kaplan wrote. "It is acutely aware of the perilous nature of the world in which we live. But the constitution is the rock upon which our nation rests. We must follow it, not when it is convenient, but when fear and danger beckon in a different direction."

Washington immediately asked for a delay of the trial, which had been expected to begin with opening statements today, so that it had time to appeal against the ruling should it decide to do so.


Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/oct/06/guantanamo-bay-trial-halted

[bemildred]

7. Embassy Bombing Witness Barred in Trial by Judge Is `Critical,' U.S. Says

A witness the U.S. says is “critical” to its case against Ahmed Ghailani, an alleged terrorist charged with bombing two U.S. embassies, can’t testify because Ghailani was “coerced” into disclosing the man’s identity, a judge ruled.

U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan in New York yesterday rejected a request by prosecutors to allow Hussein Abebe, a Tanzanian miner, to testify that he sold five crates of dynamite to Ghailani before the 1998 blasts in Tanzania and Kenya. Kaplan ruled that Abebe’s testimony is too closely tied to coerced statements made by Ghailani while he was in CIA custody and must be excluded from the trial.

“The court has not reached this conclusion lightly,” Kaplan said. “It is acutely aware of the perilous nature of the world in which we live. But the Constitution is the rock upon which our nation rests. We must follow it not only when it is convenient, but when fear and danger beckon in a different direction.”

The judge postponed the start of Ghailani’s trial from yesterday to Oct. 12. The decision marked a setback for prosecutors, who told Kaplan that Abebe is the only person who could give a first-hand account of Ghailani’s role in the attacks.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-10-07/embassy-bombing-witness-barred-in-trial-by-judge-is-critical-u-s-says.html