First Guantanamo suspect moved to U.S. for trial

By Edith Honan

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The United States transferred the first detainee from Guantanamo Bay on Tuesday to stand trial in a U.S. civilian court in a test case for President Barack Obama's plans to close the controversial prison for foreign terrorism suspects.

Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani, a Tanzanian held at the U.S. naval base in Cuba since 2006, pleaded not guilty in Manhattan federal court to charges of conspiring in the 1998 bombings of U.S. embassies in Tanzania and Kenya that killed 224 people.

He had been escorted to New York by U.S. marshals, the Department of Justice said.

Bringing Ghailani to the United States and putting him on trial in a civilian court will test Obama's contention that some of the roughly 240 detainees at the camp can be safely prosecuted and imprisoned in the United States.

Republicans have criticized the president's plan to transfer Guantanamo suspects to the United States. "This is the first step in the Democrats' plan to import terrorists into America," House of Representatives Republican leader John Boehner said in a statement.

Civil liberties advocates say Obama should bring all Guantanamo detainees into U.S. civilian courts.

Ghailani faces 286 counts, including charges of conspiring with Osama bin Laden and other members of al Qaeda to kill Americans, and separate charges of murder for each of the 224 people killed in the August 7, 1998, bombings.

Ghailani was brought into the courtroom wearing a blue jail uniform and appeared relaxed. Judge Loretta Preska asked him how he would plea, and he said, "Not guilty" in English. At other points, he spoke in Swahili through a court interpreter.