First Guantanamo prisoner in US for trial -- china.org.cn

A suspected terrorist charged with participating in the 1998 bombings of American embassies in East Africa arrived in New York on Tuesday as the first Guantanamo Bay detainee transferred to the United States.

Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani, a Tanzanian who had been held at Guantanamo Bay since September 2006, is pictured in this undated FBI photograph, obtained June 9, 2009. Ghailani charged with participating in the 1998 bombings of American embassies in East Africa arrived in New York on Tuesday as the first Guantanamo Bay detainee transferred to the United States. [Xinhua]

Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani, a Tanzanian national who had been held at the detention center at the US naval base in Cuba since September 2006, arrived at the Metropolitan Correctional Center early Tuesday.

Ghailani will "face criminal charges stemming from his alleged role in the Aug. 7, 1998 bombings of US embassies in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, and Nairobi, Kenya," which killed 224 people, according to a Justice Department statement.

Ghailani was to make his first appearance in a Manhattan federal court later Tuesday. He faces 286 counts of murder, conspiracy to murder, bomb and maim, and conspiracy to use weapons of mass destruction against US nationals, said the statement.

If convicted, he could face the death penalty, it said.

Ghailani's arrival in the United States came after a fierce debate over the relocation of about 240 Guantanamo detainees if the controversial prison is closed as President Barack Obama has ordered.

Republican and some Democratic lawmakers are opposed to the president's plan to close the prison by January 2010 and transfer some detainees to the United States for trial. The lawmakers cite concerns for national security for their opposition.

Attorney General Eric Holder has insisted that Ghailani's presence in the United States poses no threat to the country.

The Guantanamo detention center still houses about 240 terrorist suspects from 30 nations, most of whom were detained after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks.

(Xinhua News Agency June 10, 2009)