Benghazi Suspect Pleads Not Guilty To Murder Charges

Libyan militant Ahmed Abu Khatallah pleaded not guilty to charges from the 2012 Benghazi attacks that killed four Americans on Monday, according to Reuters.

Forty-three-year-old Abu Khatallah is the first militant to be prosecuted for the Benghazi attacks, Reuters reported. He entered the not-guilty plea for the 17 newly brought charges against him through his lawyer during a 15-minute court proceeding before a federal judge.

The charges against Abu Khatallah include murder of an internationally protected person, murder of an officer and employee of the United States and killing a person in the course of an attack on a federal facility, according to Voice of America News, according to Reuters.

If convicted, an 18-count jury could give Abu Khatallah the death penalty, Reuters reported. The next court date in the case was set for Dec. 9.

Abu Khatallah's lawyer, federal public defender Michelle Peterson, said she is waiting for the Justice Department to turn over additional classified material, according to VOA.

According to Abu Khatallah's lawyer, the U.S. government has thus far failed to show how his client was connected to the attacks since he was arrested and captured in June and brought to the United States to stand trial on terrorism charges, Reuters reported.

Federal prosecutor Michael DiLorenzo said the government may be charging other defendants in the same case, according to Reuters.

The new charges were brought against Abu Khatallah last week and include murdering an "internationally protected person," and for the murder of one person in an attack on a federal facility, Reuters reported.

The amount of information being undisclosed by the government is a hot topic in this case, and questions have arisen on whether the government is removing documents, according to Reuters.

So far, several thousand pages of documents and more than 130 hours of video have been released, Reuters reported. The evidence released so far is reported to be approximately 60-80% of the total amount

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