Jury Selection Begins for First Death Penalty Trial in USS Cole Case at Guantanamo
Jury selection starts at Guantanamo Bay for Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, accused of mastering the USS Cole bombing that killed 17 sailors.
POLICY WIRE — Guantanamo Bay, Cuba — The legal process of selecting a jury has officially commenced in the trial of a Saudi national accused of mastermining the 2000 attack on a U.S. Navy vessel.
The defendant, 61-year-old Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, is the first individual at the Guantanamo Bay base to face a capital case under the established military commission system.
The charges stem from the bombing of the USS Cole, a terrorist attack that resulted in the deaths of 17 American service members more than 25 years ago.
The selection process began on Monday, follows a rigorous week-long period of questioning that concluded this past Friday.
By the end of that initial week, only three of the 20 U.S. military officers required for the panel had been selected.
Colonel Matthew Fitzgerald, the presiding judge, had announced the selection timeline from the military commission bench on Thursday morning.
The announcement came just days before the Pentagon was originally expected to present 36 candidates for the proceedings.
Reporting by Policy-Wire (PW)
