NEW YORK — A Guantanamo Bay detainee brought to the United States for trial on charges he helped the bombing of two US embassies in Africa while he was an aide to Osama bin Laden cannot use allegations of torture by the CIA to dismiss the indictment, a judge said yesterday.
US District Judge Lewis A. Kaplan made the ruling in Manhattan after months of consideration of documents, much of their contents redacted, that were submitted by attorneys for Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani and the government.
Kaplan said that Ghailani might be able to sue the government for civil damages or seek criminal prosecution of those who abused him if he can prove his rights were violated by torture, but that he cannot eliminate an indictment charging him in the August 1998 bombings of two US embassies.
The ruling by Kaplan could set a precedent if other Guantanamo detainees are brought to the United States for trials in the civilian court system. Some of them also allege they were tortured. The judge said there were precedents set by other court cases for his findings.
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2010/05/11/ny_judge_says_torture_no_grounds_to_dismiss_indictment/