A federal judge in Washington, D.C. today ordered Ahmed Abu Khatallah, the defendant in the Benghazi attack, held without bail until his trial. During a brief hearing in federal court, prosecutors said the evidence against him included statements by witnesses to the attack and "voluntary statements made by the defendant." Khatallah's public defender did not object to his continued detention, because he is a foreign national with no ties to the U.S. She said the Government has offered no evidence that he was actually one of the attackers.
In a document filed before the hearing, the Government said "in the days before the attack, he voiced opposition to presence of an American facility in Benghazi. "Prosecutors said several members of a terrorist group he commanded have been identified as being among the attackers. The Government says shortly after the attack he entered the US Compound in Benghazi and "supervised removal of material." After the attack, the Government says, he got weapons to defend himself form an expected capture by the US and plotted other attacks on American people and property in Libya.
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