New York (CNN) -- A key witness at the trial of the first Guantanamo detainee to be tried in the United States cannot testify, a judge ruled Wednesday, because of concerns over torture.
The man on trial, Ahmed Ghailani, told the CIA about the witness while agents were interrogating him, and the government has conceded that everything Ghailani said in CIA custody can be considered to have been coerced.
"The government has elected not to litigate the details of Ghailani's treatment while in CIA custody," Judge Lewis Kaplan noted in his ruling Wednesday.
"In these circumstances, the Constitution does not permit [Hussain] Abebe to testify in this criminal trial," the judge added. He left a potential opening for the government if it can show there was little connection between the identification of Abebe as a possible witness and the CIA's treatment of Ghailani.
The ruling is a victory for Ghailani's defense attorneys, who had asked that Abebe not be allowed to testify.
Ghailani is accused of involvement in the 1998 bombings of United States embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. The attacks killed 224 people, including 12 Americans.
CNN
