HRW: Ghailani verdict shows courts work

NEW YORK, Jan. 26 (UPI) -- A life sentence for a man tied to deadly 1998 bombings of the embassies in Kenya and Tanzania shows civilian courts can work for terrorism, a rights group said.

Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani was sentenced Tuesday to life in prison by a federal judge in New York for his role in attacks on the two U.S. embassies in Africa.

U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan said Ghailani "knew and intended that people would be killed" in the 1998 bombings of the embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. A total of 224 people, including a dozen Americans, died and thousands were hurt in the attacks.

Ghailani was apprehended in Pakistan in 2004 and is the first Guantanamo detainee tried in U.S. civilian court. He is the fifth defendant convicted in the case.

Laura Pitter, a counter-terrorism adviser for Human Rights Watch, said the trial showed civilian courts could work for complex terrorism cases like Ghailani's.

"The Ghailani trial demonstrated that a complex case for a horrendous crime committed abroad can be fairly tried in a legitimate system and result in a sentence worthy of that crime," she said in a statement.

Aides to U.S. President Barack Obama said he has the power to bypass a law preventing the transfer of terror suspects from Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to the United States.

One of Obama campaign pledges was to close the military prison by January 2010 and move detainees to the U.S. trials. However, a major defense bill passed by Congress in December forbids using military funds to ship the inmates to the United States.