A US judge on Tuesday sentenced a Tanzanian national to life in prison without parole for his role in the 1998 bombings of two US embassies in Africa. Ahmed Ghailani, 36, was the first former inmate from the Guantanamo Bay jail to be tried in a US civilian court.
Judge Lewis Kaplan imposed the maximum sentence after Ghailani was found guilty of conspiracy to damage or destroy US property during the truck bombings that killed 224 people at the American embassies in Tanzania and Kenya. "Mr Ghailani knew and intended that people would be killed as a result of his own actions," Kaplan told the hearing before passing sentence. "Today is about justice, not only for Mr Ghailani, but for the victims of his crimes," the judge added.