NEW YORK, Oct. 22 (UPI) -- The lead prosecutor said he agrees with trying an alleged plotter in the 1998 U.S. embassies bombings in a civilian court rather than by a military commission.
Some Republican lawmakers have protested the decision not to take Abu Anas al-Liby to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, for more lengthy interrogation on al-Qaida, particularly on his alleged role in the August 1998 bombings of the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, which killed 224 people, including two CIA agents and 10 other Americans, The Miami Herald reported Monday.
On Oct. 5, U.S. forces captured al-Liby, real name Nazih Abdul-Hamed al-Ruqai, in Tripoli, Libya, and interrogated him aboard a U.S. Navy warship at sea. They then brought him to a New York court because he was ill and required treatment on land, U.S. officials told the Herald.
Army Brig. Gen. Mark Martins, the Pentagon's lead prosecutor at the Guantanamo Bay facility, said Monday he "coordinated on that and concurred with the forum selection."
He said al-Liby was indicted for the bombings in a federal court in New York when he was captured.
Some GOP members of Congress said they wanted al-Liby prosecuted before a military commission at Guantanamo Bay.
