Suleiman Abu Ghaith, one of Osama bin Laden’s sons-in-law, was found guilty of terrorism-related charges by a federal jury in New York on Wednesday, following a three-week trial that offered an unusually intimate portrait of Al Qaeda’s former leader in the days after 9/11.
Abu Ghaith, 48, faces life in prison after a jury convicted him of conspiring to kill Americans, conspiring to provide material support for terrorists, and providing such support.
The 48-year-old Kuwaiti-born preacher is the highest-profile bin Laden adviser to face trial in a US civilian court since the attacks. Bin Laden was killed by US forces in May 2011 at his hideout in Pakistan. The purported mastermind of the attacks, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, was captured and is being held at the US military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
The surprise of Abu Ghaith’s three-week trial was his decision to testify in his own defense. Abu Ghaith denied that he knew of any plots against Americans or ever became a member of Al Qaeda as the US prosecutors charge.
Abu Ghaith acknowledged meeting with bin Laden in an Afghanistan cave hours after the 9/11 attacks, where he said he first learned that Al Qaeda was responsible. Abu Ghaith later married a daughter of bin Laden.
He would appear in several videos at bin Laden’s behest, including one filmed the following day, in which he told the United States that the attacks were a “natural” result of American foreign policy toward Muslims.
The US government claimed that the videos served as recruiting tools and showed Abu Ghaith knew of Al Qaeda’s plans to detonate a shoe bomb aboard an airplane, a plot that failed when Briton Richard Reid attempted it in December 2001.
“Sitting next to Osama bin Laden, Abu Ghaith spoke to the world,” Assistant US Attorney John Cronan said during his closing argument on Monday.
But Abu Ghaith’s lawyers have argued that mere “words and associations,” however offensive, are not enough to convict him.
“The videos do their job because they alarm you … and that’s why they’re here,” defense lawyer Stanley Cohen said.
The case is U.S. v. Abu Ghayth, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York, No. 98-cr-01023.
http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/americas/united-states/140326/jury-convicts-osama-bin-ladens-son-law-terrorism
Jury convicts Osama bin Laden"s son-in-law on terrorism charges
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