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Abu Khattala, who appeared in court wearing a white shirt and dark pants, has pleaded not guilty to his charges, including murder of an internationally protected person, providing material support to terrorists and destroying U.S. property while causing death.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In his opening statement, defense attorney Jeffrey Robinson called Abu Khattala a \u201cLibyan patriot\u201d who fought on America\u2019s side in the war against Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi. He said Abu Khattala didn\u2019t mastermind the attack. The lawyer said the defendant simply went to the attack site because he heard there was a protest and wanted to see what was happening.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cHe didn\u2019t shoot anyone. He didn\u2019t set any fires. He did not participate in the attacks,\u201d Robinson said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Robinson also said Abu Khattala was a deeply religious man who believes in conservative sharia law as outlined in the Quran. He reminded jurors that in America, people are not prosecuted because of their religious beliefs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The prosecution gave a starkly different portrayal of the defendant. Assistant U.S. Attorney John Crabb said that when Abu Khattala\u2019s hatred of America boiled over, he orchestrated the attacks and then triumphantly strode around the attack site carrying an AK-47.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Crabb said that later, the defendant told someone at his apartment: \u201cI attacked the American Embassy\u201d and would have killed more Americans that night if others had not intervened.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He said Abu Khattala \u201chates America with a vengeance.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cHe killed Ambassador Stevens \u2014 a man of peace.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The trial is expected to last for weeks. Crabb said the prosecution would show the jury videos of the attack site and Abu Khattala\u2019s phone records, which he said showed a spike in activity during the attacks. He said witnesses would include weapons and fire experts and a man named Ali, who was paid $7 million to befriend Abu Khattala and help U.S. forces capture him in Libya.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
After he was captured, he was taken to a U.S. Navy ship that transported him to the United States. During the 12-day journey, he was first interrogated by intelligence personnel and then by FBI agents. Crabb said Abu Khattala told FBI agents that America was the \u201croot of all the world\u2019s problems.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
His defense lawyer said Abu Khattala cooperated aboard the ship and he \u201ccontinued to deny, as he denies today, any participation in planning or masterminding the attack.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The alleged mastermind of the 2012 attacks on a U.S. outpost in Benghazi, Libya, despises America and when his hatred \u201cboiled over,\u201d he organized the strike that killed four Americans, including ambassador Chris Stevens, a government prosecutor told the jury on Monday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":103818,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":62,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":[]},"categories":[101,12,26,62],"tags":[],"coauthors":[948],"class_list":["post-69098","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-daily-news-roundup","category-news","category-newsletters","category-pentagon-congress"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"3FYG7H3N5NATZFZL5AL2HHGB7M","arc_canonical_url":"\/news\/pentagon-congress\/2017\/10\/02\/trial-opens-for-suspected-mastermind-of-benghazi-attacks\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented By:"},"yoast_head":"\n