Psychologist: Ex-Guantanamo detainee suffers post-traumatic stress during strip searches

Testimony: Searches trigger post-traumatic stress

NEW YORK — A psychologist says the first Guantanamo Bay detainee to face trial in a civilian court in the United States told her he would prefer to be tried before a military tribunal.

Katherine Porterfield says Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani (guh-LAHN’-ee) believes he would get a fairer trial before a military court, where soldiers would decide his fate. She testified Tuesday in Manhattan federal court.

Ghailani’s attorneys have asked that the Bureau of Prisons alter its strip search policy. Porterfield says Ghailani suffers from post-traumatic stress because of extreme interrogation procedures he underwent at secret overseas CIA camps after his 2004 arrest.

Ghailani is charged in the August 1998 bombings of two U.S. embassies in Africa.

Judge Lewis Kaplan did not immediately rule.