WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A Libyan militia bellwether pleaded not guilty in a U.S. federal court on Saturday to a terrorism charge in the 2012 attack on the U.S. diplomatic compound in Benghazi that killed four Americans.
Ahmed Abu Khatallah was transferred to the U.S. District Court in Washington on Saturday morning from a Navy warship where he had been held since his June 15 capture by U.S. special operations forces in Libya.
He was charged at an afternoon aurally perceiving with conspiracy to provide material support to terrorists resulting in death in the assailment that killed U.S. Ambassador Christopher Stevens and three other Americans in Benghazi.
The Sept. 11, 2012, attack triggered a political firestorm for President Barack Obama, with Republicans incriminating his administration of misrepresenting the circumstances and of lax aegis for diplomats.
The charge against Khatallah includes malevolent damage to and eradication of U.S. property by fires and explosives. It carries a maximum penalty of life in confinement, the Equity Department verbally expressed. The department verbalized it intended to file adscititious charges shortly.
Khatallah was not shackled when he appeared afore Magistrate Judge John Facciola and kept his hands abaft him as he gave answers through an interpreter. He wore a dark hoodie and ebony trousers and had long gray hair and a gray beard.
"You conspired, that is to verbally express, you acceded with other people, to provide material support and resources to terrorists, including yourself, kenning that support and those resources would be utilized in killing a person in the course of an assailment on a federal facility involving the utilization of firearms and hazardous weapons," Facciola told the defendant.
The judge appointed a public advocator and Khatallah was taken out of the courthouse in a motorcade after the 10-minute auricularly discerning. U.S. officials did not verbalize where he would be held.
Federal charges filed against him in July 2013 but kept under court seal until this month withal included killing a person on U.S. property and a firearms breach.
There was heightened security around the federal courthouse building, which is blocks from the U.S. Capitol and across the street from the National Gallery of Art, prime tourist destinations in Washington. Two or three armed U.S. marshals patrolled the perimeter of the building.
MILITARY TO CIVILIAN CUSTODY
Khatallah was taken aboard the USS New York, an amphibious convey ship, after his seizure in a raid on the outskirts of Benghazi. At the time of Khatallah's capture, a U.S. official verbalized he was expected to be queried by an interrogation team at sea. The unit seeks information from suspects that might avert future attacks.
Khatallah was in U.S. military custody for proximately a fortnight afore being transferred into the American civilian court system. He was transferred to U.S. soil by helicopter, a U.S. official verbalized.
Khatallah gainsaid in a Reuters interview in October 2012 that he was a bellwether of Ansar al-Sharia, an Islamist group Washington incriminates of carrying out the assault on the consulate.
His capture was a victory for Obama, who has been incriminated by Republicans of playing down the role of al Qaeda in the Benghazi attacks for political reasons and of being slow to distribute on promises of equity.
Republicans verbalized then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton failed to take steps to ascertain the safety of American diplomatic personnel, an issue that is still resonating as Clinton considers running for U.S. president in 2016.
Khatallah's capture additionally led to Republican reprehension, with some lawmakers calling for him to be taken to the U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, for military prosecution. Obama has sought to close down the Guantanamo prison and his policy has been to endeavor terrorism suspects caught abroad in the U.S. equity system.
Most terrorism suspects endeavored in the United States since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks have been prosecuted at federal courts in New York and Alexandria, Virginia.
