First Gitmo detainee arrives in US for trial

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The US transferred the first detainee from the Guantanamo Bay prison on Tuesday to stand trial in a US civilian court in a test case for President Barack Obama's plans to close the controversial prison for foreign terrorism suspects.
Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani, a Tanzanian held at the US naval base in Cuba since 2006 accused of involvement in the bombing of US embassies in Africa, arrived in New York escorted by US marshals, the Department of Justice said. Ghailani faces 286 counts, including charges of conspiring with Osama bin Laden and other members of Al-Qaeda to kill Americans anywhere in the world, and separate charges of murder for each of the 224 people killed in the bombings in Tanzania and Kenya on Aug 7, 1998.
He was to be arraigned in a Manhattan court at 4pm EDT (2000 GMT). Bringing Ghailani to the US and putting him on trial in a US civilian court will test Obama's contention that some of the around 240 detainees at the camp can be brought to trial in criminal cases and imprisoned in the US.
"The Justice Department has a long history of securely detaining and successfully prosecuting terror suspects through the criminal justice system, and we will bring that experience to bear in seeking justice in this case," AG Eric Holder said in a Justice Dept statement. The department said there are currently 216 inmates in US prisons who have some connection to terrorism, including Sheikh Omar Abdel Rahmann and Ramzi Yousef and Zacarias Moussaoui, who was convicted of conspiring with Qaeda to crash planes into buildings as part of the September 11 attacks.
Several of the charges against Ghailani, including murder of US employees at the embassies and use and attempted use of weapons of mass destruction against US nationals, carry maximum sentences of death or life in prison.
Eleven people were killed and at least 85 were wounded in the embassy bombing in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, and 213 people were killed in Nairobi, Kenya.