CLIENT: A2L Consulting
SCOPE: PowerPoint Presentation for Pretrial Evidentiary Hearing
On September 11, 2012, a coordinated attack by 20 militants stormed the U.S. diplomatic compound and a nearby CIA annex in Benghazi, Libya with machine guns and grenade launchers. Four Americans, including the U.S. Ambassador to Libya, Christopher Stevens, were killed.
In 2014, a team of U.S. special forces and FBI agents were tipped off by a local informant and one of the militants, Ahmed Salim Faraj Abu Khattala, was captured in a seaside villa in Libya. Rather than flying him directly to the United States, the Obama administration, for security reasons, opted to transport him in the brig of a Navy ship that took 13 days to steam across the ocean. During the 5,000-mile transatlantic trip, Mr. Khattala was repeatedly interrogated after signing waivers against self-incrimination and his right to an attorney.
Once Mr. Khattala arrived in the United States and was provided with lawyers, they challenged the legitimacy of the waivers, saying the government should not be permitted to use his statements as evidence against him. They argued that he had been in coercive circumstances, did not understand the significance of what he was doing and did not voluntarily waive those rights.
They also suggested that by not flying him to the States, the US government had deliberately prolonged his journey and because the Navy ship, the U.S.S. New York, did not use all its engines, it slowed the passage to give interrogators extra time while violating Mr. Khattala’s right to appear before a judge as quickly as possible
At the pretrial hearing in August 2017, Mr. Khattala’s attorneys attempted to suppress the statements he'd made to interrogators in the brig of the Navy warship. The PowerPoint I created was a presentation of the Duty Officer and Guard logs that chronicled Mr. Khattala's thirteen days at sea. They document the exact times and durations of the interrogations and all 2-hour well-being checks, medical visits and latrine visits. The logs are interactive, allowing the attorney(s) to click back and forth between days and times as needed.
Ultimately, Judge Christopher Cooper of the Federal District Court for the District of Columbia, who conducted the eight-day pretrial evidentiary hearing on the matter, accepted the government’s explanation that its “decision to transport Abu Khattala by ship was reasonable and not motivated by a desire to prolong his interrogation.” He cited testimony about the diplomatic and military complications that a flight would have entailed and unrelated engine trouble the vessel was experiencing.
The judge also found that Mr. Khattala’s waiver of his Miranda rights had been voluntary, noting that the warning had been read to him repeatedly and that he had still declined to answer some questions. “Abu Khattala was treated respectfully and humanely while in custody; he was not subject to threats or promises of any kind; and his interview sessions were broken up frequently with time for meals, rest, and prayer.”
Subsequently, Mr. Khattala faced trial a few months later and was found guilty on November 28, 2017 for helping to plan and carry out the attack, but acquitted on charges that his actions led to the deaths of the four Americans. He was sentenced to 22 years in prison on June 27, 2018.