June 16 (Bloomberg) -- A U.S. judge urged Justice Department lawyers to decide if theyÂ’ll seek the death penalty for Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani, a former detainee at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, who is now facing civilian charges over his alleged role in the 1998 bombings of two U.S. embassies in Africa.U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan in New York, who is presiding over the case, said at a hearing today in Manhattan federal court that the Justice Department should decide quickly. The judge said heÂ’s sure the government is considering the issue and should speedily resolve an issue that may linger for months.
“This case gets tried in 2010, if it gets tried at all,” Kaplan said today at a hearing.
Ghailani is the first Guantanamo inmate to be tried in a U.S. civilian court. He was transferred to New York last week to face charges that he participated in the Al Qaeda-sponsored bombing of U.S. embassies in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, and Nairobi, Kenya. The attacks killed 224 people, including 12 Americans. Four others were convicted in a 2001 trial in Manhattan and are serving life sentences.
Ghailani was held at the Guantanamo military facility since 2006. He faces 286 counts including a charge of cooperating with Osama Bin Laden and other members of al-Qaeda to kill Americans around the world, according to a Justice Department statement.
In 2008, the U.S. moved to try Ghailani before a military commission and sought the death penalty.
Assistant U.S. Attorney David Raskin told Kaplan today that he’s “not optimistic” that the death penalty decision will be decided as quickly as the judge wants. “There’s still a process,” he said, adding that he would try to speed the decision along.
Also today, Kaplan appointed two civilian lawyers to represent Ghailani and said he would add two military lawyers to the defense team if the Defense Department gives them permission to join. Ghailani has asked that the military lawyers represent him, as they did at Guantanamo.
Kaplan said he expected the defense to file a request that the case be dismissed because the government waited too long to bring Ghailani into court in the embassy bombing case. Ghailani was first indicted in 1998 in New York. He was captured in 2004 and transferred to Guantanamo in 2006. Bin Laden was also charged with Ghailani in the case.