 Death penalty sought for ship blast suspect
(China Daily)
Updated: 2008-07-02 07:42 US military prosecutors have requested the death penalty for the alleged mastermind behind the bombing of the USS Cole warship that killed 17 US sailors in 2000, the Pentagon said on Monday. Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, a Saudi Arabian national of Yemeni descent being held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, faces eight charges, including murder and terrorism, for the attack in the Yemeni port of Aden on Oct. 12, 2000, that wounded 47 sailors. Prosecutors have also charged al-Nashiri over a failed attack on another US warship, the USS The Sullivans, in Aden in January 2000 and an attack on the SS Limburg, a French supertanker, in the Gulf of Aden in October 2002. "Five of the eight charges carry the maximum penalty of death," said Thomas Hartmann, legal adviser to the body that oversees the military commissions system set up to try terrorism suspects. Prosecutors allege al-Nashiri was a senior al Qaida figure. He is one of 14 "high value" detainees held at the prison at the US naval base at Guantanamo Bay who is regarded as particularly significant by US officials. Suicide bombers rammed a small boat laden with explosives into the side of the USS Cole, ripping a 40-foot hole in the hull. Prosecutors allege al-Nashiri recruited two co-conspirators to carry out the attack. The CIA has said it used waterboarding on al-Nashiri and he has alleged he was tortured. Agencies (China Daily 07/02/2008 page12) |
