Guantanamo detainee trial delayed

The start of the first civilian trial in the United States of a Guantanamo Bay detainee was delayed after a judge ruled the prosecution cannot call its key witness.

Opening statements in the U.S. government's case against Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani were scheduled for Wednesday, but U.S. federal Judge Lewis Kaplan exempted the witness, who sold explosives to Ghailani.

Ghailani's lawyers wanted  the witness excluded because they say he was uncovered only after Ghailani was aggressively interrogated at an overseas CIA camp from 2004 until 2006

"The government has failed to prove that Abebe's testimony is sufficiently attenuated from Ghailani's coerced statements to permit its receipt in evidence," Kaplan wrote in a three-page decision.

"The court has not reached this conclusion lightly. It is acutely aware of the perilous nature of the world in which we live. But the Constitution is the rock upon which our nation rests. We must follow it not when it is convenient, but when fear and danger beckon in a different direction."

Following the judge's ruling, the prosecution quickly moved for a delay. The judge dismissed the pool of 66 jurors until Oct. 12.

Ghailani faces charges of conspiring in the 1998 bombings of two U.S. embassies in Africa. The attacks left 224 people dead, including 12 Americans.

U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder said he was confident the government could go ahead its case against Ghailani, despite Wednesday's ruling.

Holder said there have been more than 300 successful prosecutions in U.S. civilian courts of terrorism cases.