NEW YORK, Nov. 17 (UPI) -- A New York jury Wednesday acquitted a man accused in the 1998 bombings of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania on all but one of more than 280 counts.
Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani faces the scores of counts of conspiracy and murder in the bombings, which killed 224 people, including a dozen Americans, and injured thousands of others. The jury -- which heard the case anonymously -- found him guilty of one count of conspiracy to destroy government buildings and property, The New York Times reported.
Ghailani's defense attorney told the jury in a closing statement Tuesday his client was a pawn of al-Qaida, which claimed responsibility for the bombings. The defense rested without calling any witnesses.
Prosecutors accused Ghailani, 36, of mass murder, saying the Tanzanian played a critical role in securing materials and the truck that carried the bomb in Tanzania.
Ghailani is the first detainee from the military prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to be tried in civilian court. He was captured in Pakistan in 2004, moved to Guantanamo in 2006, then transferred to a federal prison in New York in 2009.
He could be sentenced to 20 years to life in prison, the Times said.
