The judge presiding over the USS Cole bombing case, US Air Force Col. Vance Spath, said Wednesday that he plans [transcript, PDF] to set a 2018 trial date for the case. The judge stated that he anticipates that it will take months to seat a jury. He stressed the importance of keeping the case moving forward. He urged parties to finalize discovery and to being scheduling presentations for next year.

The proceedings surrounding the prosecution of the USS Cole bombing [JURIST news archive] have given rise to numerous due process concerns. In September the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit refused [JURIST report] to halt the military trial of the suspect charged with orchestrating the bombing of the USS Cole in 2000, which killed 17 US Navy sailors. In September 2015 the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit ordered [JURIST report] the release of Sudanese funds held by New York banks to satisfy a $315 million default judgment in the USS Cole case. In 2007 alleged bomber Abd al Rahim al-Nashiri declared that his confession to orchestrating the USS Cole bombing was elicited under torture [JURIST report]. Nashiri made his first court appearance [JURIST report] in November 2011 after he was captured in Dubai in 2002. Al-Nashiri is charged with war crimes relating to the bombing of the USS Cole, the bombing of the MV Limburg in 2002 and a failed plot to attack an American warship, The Sullivans, in 2000. In March of 2013 last year a US military judge ruled [JURIST report] that the medical care provided to al-Nashiri by authorities at the Guantanamo Bay detention center was adequate.