A federal grand jury on Tuesday filed 17 new charges against the suspected ringleader of the deadly 2012 attacks in Benghazi, Libya, including several counts of murder that could bring the death penalty for the 43-year-old suspected terrorist.
The newly unsealed indictment offers a richer timeline of how federal authorities believe Ahmed Abu Khattala orchestrated the attack on a CIA station and a diplomatic mission on Sept. 11 and Sept. 12. Four U.S. government officials, including U.S. Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens, died in the assault on the compound.
Khattala has pleaded not guilty to a conspiracy charge after he was seized June 15 in Benghazi during a raid by U.S. Special Operations forces. The only suspect thus far apprehended, he was questioned aboard a U.S. Navy warship before being transported by helicopter to the Washington area.
The new charges filed Tuesday include murder of an internationally protected person, murder of an officer and employee of the U.S., killing a person in the course of an attack on a federal facility, destroying a U.S. facility and brandishing a handgun.
Khattala’s court-appointed attorney the Federal Public Defender’s Office could not be reached for comment Tuesday evening, when the indictment was unsealed. Khattala is to be arraigned on the new charges in U.S. District Court on Oct. 20.
