Trial of alleged ringleader of Benghazi attack begins in Washington
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Federal prosecutors opened their case against Ahmed Abu Khatallah on Monday by telling jurors he orchestrated the 2012 attack on a U.S. diplomatic compound in Benghazi, Libya, that killed US Ambassador Christopher Stevens and three other Americans.
Khatallah has been awaiting trial since 2014, when he was captured by a team of US military and FBI officials in Libya and transported on a 13-day journey to the United States aboard a Navy vessel.
In his opening statement, federal prosecutor John Crabb said Khatallah hates America "with a vengeance" and played a leading role in organizing the Sept. 11, 2012, attack on the US diplomatic mission in Benghazi. Khatallah "didn't do the killing by himself," he said. "He didn't light the fires and he didn't fire the mortars but you will hear he is just as guilty as the men who lit those fires."
