Friday, October 19, 2001

Bin Laden followers receive life sentences
By Tom Hays
Associated Press

NEW YORK — Four Osama bin Laden disciples convicted in the 1998 bombings of two U.S. embassies in Africa were sentenced to life without parole Thursday in a city still reeling from last month’s terrorist attacks.

Khalfan Khamis Mohamed, 28, was the first to be sentenced at the federal courthouse in lower Manhattan under heightened security. He and Mohamed Rashed Al-’Owhali, 24, were sentenced for direct involvement in the bombings.

Mohamed Sadeek Odeh, 36, of Jordan, and Wadih El-Hage, 41, were convicted of conspiracy and had been eligible for lesser sentences; El-Hage, a former personal secretary to bin Laden, was the lone U.S. citizen convicted in the attacks.

Judge Leonard B. Sand ordered each of the men to pay $33 million in restitution: $7 million to the victims’ families, and $26 million to the U.S. government.

At a pre-sentencing hearing on Wednesday, Sand said the defendants were indigent. But he also suggested that frozen assets might be used for victims, thanks to recent attempts by the Bush administration to choke off the funding of al-Qaida and other terror groups.

The near-simultaneous Aug. 7, 1998, bombings of the embassies in Kenya and Tanzania killed 231 people, including 12 Americans. They were quickly blamed on bin Laden, who was indicted in the case, and his al-Qaida terrorist organization.

El-Hage, described by prosecutors as leading a double life where he raised both seven children and money for bin Laden’s network, condemned the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and the embassy bombings in a 30-minute address to the judge.

“The killing of innocent people is radical, extreme and cannot be tolerated by any religion, principles or values,” said El-Hage, a Lebanese-born naturalized American who lived in Arlington, Texas. He repeatedly asserted his innocence, claiming he was a law-abiding American and a devout Muslim opposed to violence.

Odeh was described by defense lawyer Ed Wilford as “a soldier in the military wing of al-Qaida.” He said the attack, in Odeh’s view, was an attack against the U.S. for its support of Israel.

Odeh criticized the Clinton administration on Thursday for its bombing of Afghanistan after the embassy attacks

“I can only say to Allah we belong, and to him we’ll return,” he said. “God help me in my calamity, and replace it with goodness.”

Mohamed, convicted of helping build the bomb that struck the embassy in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, declined to address the court.

He and Al-’Owhali had faced a possible death penalty in the case, but the jury could not agree on that sentence. Through his attorney, Mohamed said he “wishes to express gratitude to a jury that spared his life.”

“The jury has found you guilty of crimes that mandate a life sentence, and I will of course impose a life sentence,” the judge told him.

Al-’Owhali, who rode the bomb vehicle up to the embassy in Nairobi, Kenya, and tossed stun grenades at guards before fleeing, also declined to address the court.

The four defendants’ six-month trial attracted little interest before the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, which killed more than 5,000 people.

Security was tightened Thursday around the courthouse just blocks from the trade center rubble. The courthouse is surrounded by steel barricades to prevent possible attacks.

The sentencing came after an appeal for life sentences by the spouses of two people killed in the embassy bombings.

“Let them die conscious of the fact that their souls will be condemned forever,” said Howard Kavaler, whose wife died in the attack on the Kenyan embassy.

Susan Hirsch, whose husband was killed in the bombing of the Tanzanian embassy, said the defendants were giving the world a distorted view of the Islamic religion. Her husband, Jamal, was Muslim.