Guantanamo detainee guilty of only one charge

The first Guantanamo detainee to face trial in a US civilian court has been acquitted on all but one of hundreds of charges he faced relating to the 1998 attacks on US embassies in Africa.

A federal jury convicted Ahmed Ghailani, of Tanzania, of one count of conspiracy to destroy US property, but cleared him on more than 280 other counts.

They included one murder count for each of the 224 people killed in the embassy bombings in Tanzania and Kenya.

The jury took seven days to reach the verdict.

US District Judge Lewis Kaplan had thanked the jury, saying the outcome showed that justice "can be rendered calmly, deliberately and fairly by ordinary people, people who are not beholden to any government, even this one."

Ghailani still faces a minimum of 20 years and a maximum of life in prison for the conspiracy conviction. His lawyer confirmed he would be appealing against the decision.

US Attorney Preet Bharara said in a statement that Ghailani "will face, and we will seek, the maximum sentence of life without parole."

The trial had been viewed as a test for President Barack Obama administration's aim of putting other terror detainees, including self-professed 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheik Mohammed and four other terrorism suspects held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, on trial on US soil.