18 Nov 2010

Guantanamo detainee acquitted of all but one charge

8:47 pm on 18 November 2010

The first former Guantanamo Bay detainee to be tried in a civilian court in America has been found guilty of just one terror charge over the bombings of US embassies.

Ahmed Ghailani, 36, a Tanzanian from Zanzibar, was found guilty of conspiracy to damage or destroy US property with explosives, after facing more than 280 terror charges, the ABC reports.

He was accused of conspiring in the 1998 Al Qaeda car bomb attacks on US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania that killed 224 people.

A spokesperson for the prosecutor says Ghailani faces a mandatory minimum sentence of 20 years for the conviction.

Some regard the outcome as a setback to President Barack Obama's plans for trying terrorism suspects.

Ghailani was captured in Pakistan in 2004 and held by the CIA and then at Guantanamo Bay for five years.

The jury in a federal court in New York deliberated for five days after a month-long trial.