WASHINGTON (AP) — The Justice Department says it won’t seek the death penalty against the suspected Libyan militant charged in the Benghazi attacks that killed a U.S. ambassador and three other Americans.
Federal officials announced their decision Tuesday in the case of Ahmed Abu Khattala.
His attorneys had implored the Justice Department to remove the death penalty as a possibility if Khattala is ultimately convicted at trial.
Khattala was captured by U.S. special forces in Libya two years ago and brought to the U.S. aboard a Navy ship.
He’s been awaiting trial in federal court in Washington in connection with the September 2012 attacks on a diplomatic compound in Benghazi.
Prosecutors have described him as a ringleader of the attacks, which quickly emerged as a divisive U.S. political flashpoint.
