Opening statements have begun in the case of Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani, the first Guantánamo Bay detainee to face a civilian trial. Ghailani appeared in a New York courtroom Tuesday on charges he was involved in the 1998 US embassy bombings in Tanzania and Kenya, which killed 224 people. Laura Pitter of Human Rights Watch said the trial of a Guantánamo Bay prisoner in a civilian court instead of by military commission is long overdue.

Laura Pitter: “It’s better than the commissions because the commissions have an enormous number of legal challenges ahead of it. There is no rules, really, of evidence. Everything is ad hoc and made it up as they go along. And as a result, it is subject to an enormous number of legal challenges. And the victims deserve justice.”