On January 25 , 2011 , U.S. District Judge Lewis A. Kaplan , the presiding judge in the case , sentenced Ghailani , believed to be 36 years old at the time , to life in prison for the bombing , stating that any suffering Ghailani experienced at the hands of the CIA or other agencies while in custody at Guantanamo Bay pales in comparison to the monumental tragedy of the bombings of the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998 , which killed 224 people , including 12 Americans , and left thousands injured or otherwise impacted by the crimes . The attacks were one of the deadliest non-wartime incidents of international terrorism to affect the United States ; they were on a scale not surpassed until the September 11 attacks three years later . Ghailani , who had said he was never involved and did not intend to kill anyone , had been portrayed as cooperating with investigators - yielding information wanted by investigators - and as remorseful by his defense counsel , but that argument of relative non-involvement or remorse was not accepted . He is the fifth person to be sentenced . Four others were sentenced to life in prison in a 2001 trial in Manhattan federal court . Osama bin Laden was also named in the indictment
September 11 attacks
September 11 attacks
Ahmed Ghailani