Coercion-Tainted Evidence

Exclusion of Coercion-Tainted Evidence Echoes Other Gitmo Cases

In a decision delivered Wednesday, Judge Lewis Kaplan blocked the government from calling one of their key witnesses against Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani, inset, whose trial is now slated to start next week at the federal courthouse in Manhattan. (Daniel Barry/Getty Images)

6 October 2010 - A federal judge's decision today -- excluding key testimony from the first civilian trial of a Guantanamo detainee -- is the latest, and potentially most significant, in a series of government losses in Gitmo-related cases that relied on evidence gained during coercive interrogations [1].

Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani, accused of participating in the 1998 al-Qaida bombings of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, had been set to go on trial Wednesday in Manhattan. Judge Lewis Kaplan's ruling blocks prosecutors from calling a witness, Hussein Abebe, who was expected to testify that he had sold Ghailani the explosives used in one of the attacks. Prosecutor Michael Farbiarz had called Abebe a "giant witness for the government [2]." {read rest}