WASHINGTON – The first prosecution arising from the Benghazi attacks is playing out in the federal courthouse blocks from both the White House and Capitol Hill, an appropriate setting for a case that has drawn stark lines between President Barack Obama and Republicans in Congress.
The criminal proceedings could provide new insights into the 2012 attacks that killed four Americans and will serve as the latest test of the U.S. legal system’s ability to handle terrorism suspects captured overseas.
Untangling the law from the politics may prove especially challenging for the public, given how prominent the attacks on the diplomatic compound in the eastern Libyan city have become in U.S. political discourse.
A 10-minute court appearance amid tight security Saturday was the American public’s first concrete sense of Abu Khattala, the Libyan militant accused by the U.S. government of being a ringleader of attacks on Sept. 11, 2012.
Prosecutors have yet to reveal details about their case, although the broad outlines are in a two-page indictment unsealed Saturday.
He pleaded not guilty to a single conspiracy charge punishable by up to life in prison, but the Justice Department expects to bring additional charges soon that could be more substantial and carry more dire consequences.
For instance, a three-count criminal complaint filed last year and unsealed after his capture charged Abu Khattala with killing a person during an attack on a federal facility – a crime that carries the death penalty.
His capture revived a debate on how to treat suspected terrorists from foreign countries, as criminal defendants with the protections of the U.S. legal system – or as enemy combatants who should be interrogated for intelligence purposes and put through the military tribunal process at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
Witnesses and evidence must be gathered from a hostile foreign country, and some of the evidence may be derived from classified information.
