The word “guilty” rang out more than 300 times in a hushed federal courtroom Tuesday as a jury found four associates of alleged Saudi terrorist Osama bin Laden guilty on all charges in the 1998 bombings of two U.S. Embassies in Africa that killed 224 people and injured more than 4,000 others.
Khalfan Khamis Mohamed, 27, and Mohamed Rashed Daoud Al-‘Owhali, 24, convicted of conspiracy and of delivering the bombs to the American Embassies in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, and Nairobi, Kenya, respectively, face the death penalty. The other two defendants, Wadih El-Hage, 40, and Mohamed Sadeek Odeh, 35, found guilty of conspiracy, could be sentenced to life in prison without parole.
Their sentences will be determined by the same jury in the trial’s penalty phase, scheduled to begin Wednesday with the case of Al-‘Owhali.
The defendants appeared impassive during the delivery of the verdicts, a process that took more than an hour due to the 302 counts of the indictment. The two embassies were bombed nearly simultaneously on Aug. 7, 1998.
The jury of seven women and five men, whose names were not made public, reached its verdicts on the 12th day of deliberation after hearing three months of testimony in a heavily guarded courtroom.
“This verdict represents the first-ever conviction in an American court of individuals who caused the deaths of United States citizens abroad by means of a terrorist bombing,” said Barry Mawn, head of the FBI’s New York office, whose agents were among those participating in the agency’s largest deployment abroad.
During the trial, 92 witnesses and approximately 1,300 exhibits were presented to the jury by a government team led by Assistant U.S. Atty. Patrick Fitzgerald.
Fitzgerald, who also helped prosecute the World Trade Center bombing case, recently was recommended to be the Chicago area’s next U.S. attorney by Sen. Peter Fitzgerald (R-Ill.), who is not related to the prosecutor.
`A degree of comfort’
“Today’s guilty verdicts are a triumph for world justice and for world unity in combating international terrorism,” said Mary Jo White, U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York. “Guilty verdicts cannot bring back lost loved ones or ever erase the pain of their loss, but we hope they provide at least a degree of comfort as a significant step toward achieving some sense of justice and vindication.”
Outside the courtroom, victims and their survivors, including many from Africa, expressed satisfaction with the verdicts. “If I could sing, I would have shouted out, `Hallelujah, justice is done,'” said Ellen Bomer, 54, a federal employee who was blinded in the Kenya blast.
“It’s a bittersweet feeling that we have, but it doesn’t erase all the pain that we feel for ourselves or the other victims’ families,” said Sue Bartley, whose husband, Nairobi embassy Consul Julian Bartley Sr. and son, Julian Jr., an embassy intern, died in the explosion.
Terrorists must be prepared to take the consequences of their actions, said Clara Aliganga when asked about the death penalty. Aliganga wore an Africa-shaped pendant in gold with Nairobi marked with a green stone in honor of her son, Marine Sgt. Nathan Aliganga, 21, a security guard who died in the embassy bombing.
The defendants are four of 22 people named in the indictment. Of those, 13 are at large, including exiled Saudi extremist bin Laden, who is believed to be in Afghanistan under the protection of the Taliban government.
July trial expected
Three others are in custody in Britain, fighting extradition to the United States. Two are being held in the United States, and one, Mamdouh Mahmud Salim, is expected to stand trial in July.
Along with conspiracy, Al-‘Owhali, a Saudi, was charged with tossing stun grenades at guards and with riding in the truck that carried the bomb into the embassy compound in Nairobi. In a chilling litany of names, the jury found him personally responsible for the 213 deaths there, including 12 Americans.
Mohamed, a Tanzanian who rode in the truck that carried the Dar es Salaam bomb, also was charged with helping to grind the TNT used in the bomb and loading it on the truck. Again, the jury found him responsible for the 11 deaths at the embassy in Tanzania.
El-Hage, a Lebanese-born naturalized U.S. citizen, was accused of trying to arrange the purchase of missiles and other weapons for bin Laden’s terrorist organization while also running its businesses. Described as bin Laden’s personal secretary, El-Hage was also convicted of perjury for lying to two federal grand juries in Manhattan, before and after the bombings, about operations of bin Laden’s group, known as al Qaeda.
Odeh, a Jordanian, was accused of being the technical adviser to the bombings, as well as training Somalis to attack American military personnel and running a fishing business to support the terrorist group’s members in Kenya. Attorneys for Odeh said they would appeal the verdicts.
Defense attorneys argued that El-Hage, who lives in Arlington, Texas, with his wife and seven children, was a legitimate businessman and that the government’s case against him did not prove that El-Hage had agreed to kill Americans.
Lawyers: Defendants pawns
Odeh’s attorneys portrayed him as a devout and non-violent Muslim, while attorneys for Al-‘Owhali and Mohamed called their clients pawns in a scheme about which they knew nothing.
The prosecution’s star witness was Jamal Ahmed Al-Fadl, a founding member of bin Laden’s terrorist organization in Afghanistan, who pleaded guilty to conspiracy charges to avoid a life sentence.
Al-Fadl left al Qaeda in 1996 after he was caught stealing $110,000 from bin Laden’s businesses. He subsequently made an agreement with the U.S. government to testify in exchange for protection for himself and his family and the possibility of a reduced sentence.
In describing al Qaeda’s far-flung businesses and network of terrorist organizations, Al-Fadl provided the most detailed public picture so far of the inner workings of bin Laden’s group.
Al Qaeda’s terrorist activities were motivated by bin Laden’s anger at the presence of U.S. troops in Saudi Arabia.
TIMELINE OF EVENTS
1998
Aug. 7: Bombs carried in trucks explode in front of U.S. Embassies in Nairobi, Kenya, and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. Eleven people are killed in Dar es Salaam, 213 in Nairobi, including 12 Americans. The same day, Mohamed Sadeek Odeh is arrested in Pakistan and later extradited to the U.S. Mohamed Rashed Daoud Al-‘Owhali is arrested Aug. 9 in Kenya. Both are allegedly connected with the militant group al Qaeda, financed by leader Osama bin Laden.
Aug. 20: President Bill Clinton blames bin Laden for the bombings and launches military strikes in Sudan and Afghanistan at infrastructure suspected of housing terrorist operations.
Sept. 17: Wadih El-Hage is arrested in Texas in connection with the bombings.
1999
Oct. 9: Khalfan Khamis Mohamed is charged with murder and conspiracy in the bombings shortly after his arrest in Cape Town, South Africa. He pleads not guilty.
2001
Feb. 5: Opening arguments begin in a federal court in New York for the trial of El-Hage, Mohamed, Odeh and Al-‘Owhali
May 10: Jury begins deliberations.
May 29: Jury returns guilty verdicts against all four defendants.
FUTURE PROSECUTION
The U.S. hopes to prosecute 18 more defendants in connection with the bombings, most of whom are fugitives. Others are facing trial in New York or are detained in other countries. A look at those in custody:
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DEFENDANTS ARREST DATE
Mamdouh Mahmud Salim Sept. 1998
Ali Mohamed May 1999
Khaled Al-Fawwaz June 1999
Ibrahim Eidarous July 1999
Adel Abdel Bary July 1999
Mohamed Suleiman Al-Nalif Nov. 2000
Sources: News reports
Chicago Tribune
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