Author: Benjamin Weiser
Publication: The New York Times
Date: May 30, 2001
Four men were convicted yesterday
of conspiring with Osama bin Laden in a terrorist plot to bomb the American
Embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998. The blasts killed 224 people,
injured thousands and glaringly exposed the United States' vulnerability
abroad.
Two of the defendants were also
found guilty of murder and could now face execution. American prosecutors
are seeking to impose the death penalty for the first time for terrorism
committed against Americans in a foreign country.
The jury of seven women and five
men returned the verdicts after about 12 days of deliberations in Federal
District Court in Manhattan. The four defendants showed no visible emotion
as the jury forewoman replied "guilty" over and over as the seemingly endless
string of crimes listed in the 302-count indictment was read aloud, a process
that took more than an hour. The verdict took so long to read that the
judge, Leonard B. Sand, and a court clerk took turns reading from the verdict
form.
Prosecutors are seeking the death
penalty for two men - Mohamed Rashed Daoud al-'Owhali, 24, and Khalfan
Khamis Mohamed, 27 - who were convicted of murder in the deaths of the
victims in each bombing. Hearings, required under federal law, will be
held separately for each man before the same jury, starting today, to determine
whether they will be sentenced to death or life in prison without possibility
of parole.
The third man - Mohammed Saddiq
Odeh, 36 - was found guilty of aiding and abetting murder in the Nairobi,
Kenya, bombing. He faces life in prison without parole. Prosecutors had
decided earlier not to seek the death penalty in his case, without explaining
why.
The fourth defendant, Wadih El-
Hage, 40, also faces life without parole for his role in the terrorism
conspiracy, although the government acknowledged that he had no role in
the bombings.
The verdicts are a victory and a
validation for the federal prosecutors in Manhattan, who offered the jury
a detailed case over the last four months that placed the four defendants
in a global conspiracy led by Mr. bin Laden and rooted in Islamic fundamentalism
and a hatred of Americans.
"Today's guilty verdicts are a triumph
for world justice and for world unity in combating international terrorism,"
said Mary Jo White, the United States attorney in Manhattan, adding that
the government's work was not finished.
"We remain permanently and unrelentingly
committed to tracking down, apprehending and bringing to justice every
single participant in these crimes, however long it takes and wherever
around the globe it is necessary to go," she said.
Barry W. Mawn, the assistant director
in charge of the New York office of the F.B.I., noted that the bombings
investigation represented the largest ever conducted abroad by the F.B.I.,
whose agents held thousands of interviews.
Over the course of the trial, which
included about four months of testimony, prosecutors called 92 government
witnesses and introduced more than 1,300 exhibits. These included Mr. El-Hage's
grand jury testimony in 1997 and 1998, which prosecutors said included
96 false statements, and clothing belonging to Mr. Odeh on which traces
of explosive residue were found.
None of the four defendants testified,
but the lawyers for Mr. El-Hage and Mr. Odeh called witnesses and introduced
exhibits trying to undermine the government's case. Mr. El- Hage's business
partner testified, for example, while an Islamic religious leader testified
on behalf of Mr. Odeh, whose lawyers told the jury that their client would
not have violated Islamic law.
Lawyers for the two men who could
face the death penalty, Mr. al- 'Owhali, a Saudi citizen, and Mr. Mohamed,
a Tanzanian, refused to comment on the verdicts.
"It's premature to discuss anything,"
said David P. Baugh, a lawyer for Mr. al-'Owhali, whose death penalty hearing
will be heard first and is to begin this morning. "We are still deep in
this trial. We consider this to be the middle of the case."
But lawyers for the two other defendants
said they would appeal the verdicts.
Anthony L. Ricco, one of the lawyers
for Mr. Odeh, a Jordanian who helped in the preparations for the Nairobi
bombing, said: "These were tough emotional charges. I thought that Mohammed
had a real issue of reasonable doubt."
Another of his lawyers, Edward D.
Wilford, added, "In our opening statements, we asked the jury to be courageous,
but there was an emotional hype we could not overcome."
Lawyers for Mr. El-Hage, a naturalized
American citizen from Lebanon who lived in Arlington, Tex., said the nature
of the bombing had tended to overwhelm the defense they tried to mount
on behalf of their client, which was that he was involved in Mr. bin Laden's
legitimate activities but had nothing to do with terrorism.
They had sought unsuccessfully to
have his trial separated from that of the bombers, and that issue will
now be a basis of appeal, said one of the lawyers, Joshua L. Dratel.
Another, Sam A. Schmidt, said: "The
jury was overwhelmed by the calamity of the event. They were overwhelmed
by the carnage."
Mr. El-Hage's wife, April, who attended
some of the proceedings in recent weeks, said by phone after learning of
the verdict, "I don't believe my husband is guilty of what they accused
him of."
She added: "It is completely against
Islam, and he would never do something like this. It's against everything
he believes in."
Prosecutors said the conspiracy
grew out of a Muslim organization that had centers in Afghanistan and other
places, including the Boerum Hill neighborhood of Brooklyn. Some of the
members of that Brooklyn circle were arrested and convicted in the bombing
of the World Trade Center in 1993 and in a plot to blow up other New York
City landmarks.
The investigation of Mr. bin Laden
evolved out of those earlier terrorism investigations by the United States
attorney's office in Manhattan, which is why the trial of the embassy bombings,
which occurred more than 7,000 miles away in Africa, ended up in New York,
and why prosecutors are still seeking to bring Mr. bin Laden and 12 other
fugitives in the case to New York to face charges.
Mr. bin Laden is the scion of a
wealthy Saudi family who prosecutors say leads a group, Al Qaeda, that
finances Islamic terrorism around the world. He is believed to be living
in Afghanistan under the protection of the ruling Taliban.
As the day began yesterday, the
jury, which had sent in frequent notes to Judge Sand over the course of
its deliberations, signaled that a verdict might be near with another note
asking for a particular exhibit pertaining to Count 302 - the final charge
on the 107-page indictment.
Then, shortly after noon, the jury
sent out another note. "Judge Sand," it said, "the jury has reached a verdict!"
Within minutes, the rows in the
courtroom filled with visitors, including several dozen witnesses, victims
and family members who had come to New York, some flown from Africa.
Several who had been injured walked
in with canes, or were led by others because they were blind. There were
no outbursts or sounds of emotion during the taking of the verdict, which
included reading the names of the 224 victims, each representing individual
murder counts, but some spectators clutched tissues or sat with their faces
in their hands.
When the forewoman pronounced "guilty"
for Counts 17 and 18 - the murders of Julian L. Bartley Jr., a college
student working as an intern in the Nairobi embassy, and his father, Julian
L. Bartley Sr., the consul general - his widow, Sue, and daughter, Edith,
sat quietly, their eyes glistening, in one row.
When the forewoman pronounced "guilty"
for Count 54 - the murder of Prabhi Gutpara Kavaler in the Nairobi attack
- her husband, Howard, and their two young daughters cuddled in another
row.
After the verdict, Sue Bartley said,
"It was like a relief today to know that this part was over."
Her daughter, Edith, added, "While
we are most pleased with the verdict, we know that the loss of life and
grief that people will endure is not minimized by today's verdict."
Clara Aliganga, the mother of Jesse
N. Aliganga, a 21-year-old Marine security guard who was killed in the
Nairobi attack, said the verdict "doesn't erase the pain."
"I just hope it gets a message to
the terrorists that we won't take this lightly," she said. "There will
be justice."
