WASHINGTON (AP) – A trial of the suspected mastermind of the 2012 Benghazi, Libya, attacks is unfolding in a federal courtroom in Washington.
Opening statements will take place Monday, three years after Ahmed Abu Khattala was captured in Libya and brought to the U.S. on a 13-day trip aboard a Navy ship.
Four Americans were killed in the attacks, including U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens. Prosecutors say the attacks aimed at killing personnel and plundering maps, documents and other property from the post.
FILE – This June 28, 2014, file courtroom sketch, United States Magistrate, Judge John Facciola, swearing in the defendant, Libyan militant Ahmed Abu Khattala, wearing a headphone, as his attorney Michelle Peterson watches during a hearing at the federal U.S. District Court in Washington. The trial of Khattala, the Libyan militant accused of being the mastermind of the 2012 Benghazi attacks is scheduled to begin on Oct. 2, 2017. (Dana Verkouteren via AP, File)
The attacks became a political flashpoint given its timing weeks before President Barack Obama’s re-election.
The Abu Khattala trial is one of the most significant terrorism prosecutions in recent years in a civilian court. The Trump administration has said terror suspects are better sent to the prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
FILE – In this file photo taken Wednesday, Sept. 12, 2012, a man looks at documents at the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya, the day after an attack that killed four Americans, including Ambassador Chris Stevens. The trial of Khattala, the Libyan militant accused of being the mastermind of the 2012 Benghazi attacks is scheduled to begin on Oct. 2, 2017. (AP Photo/Ibrahim Alaguri, File)
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