It looks like being an annus horribilis for this Al Qaeda terrorist.
The first Guantanamo Bay detainee brought to America for a civilian trial said today that he’ll boycott the proceedings if he has to undergo strip searches before coming to court.
“Yes, I understand my right to be here…Can I waive my right of strip searching?” alleged al Qaeda terrorist Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani said this morning in Manhattan federal court.
The former bodyguard to Osama bin Laden, who’s charged in the 1998 African embassy bombings that killed 224 people, claims that jailhouse inspections of his anal area cause flashbacks of alleged torture by the CIA.
“He told me it eats his soul. He’s terrified of going through it,” defense team member Anna Sideris testified today.
Sideris, who meets with Ghailani several times a week, said “he doesn’t want to come to court if it means he has to go though that specific search,” which was described as “sqautting nude and spreading his butt cheeks.”
Ghailani appeared to smile nervously as the process was explained.
“Even if it means spending the rest of his life in jail, he doesn’t want to go through this,” Sideris said.
Ghailani declined to testify, but was questioned at length by Judge Lewis Kaplan about his right to appear in court and the possible harm to his case if he doesn’t attend the trial.
I think he’s missing the point. Spending the rest of his life in jail will only make things worse for his anal area.
