NY judge: Coerced testimony has no role in trial

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NY judge rules testimony coerced for intelligence purposes cannot be used in criminal trials

A judge presiding over the first civilian trial of a Guantanamo Bay detainee says the government cannot coerce a detainee to provide information for intelligence purposes and then use the evidence for criminal trial purposes.

In a ruling released Thursday, Judge Lewis Kaplan said he banned a man once labeled the government’s most important witness from the trial of Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani (AH’-mehd KAL’fahn guh-LAHN’-ee) after prosecutors failed to show Ghailani’s CIA interrogation played no role in getting the witness to cooperate.

Kaplan also stepped gingerly into the debate over military commissions when he said in a footnote that a military commission might reach his conclusion too.

Ghailani is charged in the 1998 bombings of two U.S. embassies in Africa.

Source: AP News

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