Ahmed Ghailani sentence: The future of Guantanamo

The first Guantanamo Bay detainee to be tried in a civilian court has been sentenced to life in prison. The BBC's Laura Trevelyan in New York looks at how the trial of Ahmed Ghailani has complicated the Obama administration's strategy of trying Guantanamo inmates in federal courts. Ahmed Ghailani was convicted on just one charge relating to the 1998 bombings of two US embassies in East Africa - conspiracy to damage or destroy US property with explosives. He was cleared of more than 200 others, including intent to kill. Republican Congressman Peter King, from Long Island just outside New York City, said afterwards: "This tragic verdict demonstrates the absolute insanity of the Obama administration's decision to try al-Qaeda terrorists in civilian courts." While the conviction was not the resounding one the US Department of Justice would have liked, US Attorney General Eric Holder seized on Ghailani's life imprisonment to press the case for civilian trials. "A life term imposed on a Tanzanian national for his role in the bombings of two US embassies proves the strength of American courts in trying terror cases," he said.