U.S. court convicts four Osama aides

By Sridhar Krishnaswami

WASHINGTON, MAY 30. Four men were convicted on Tuesday of a plot to kill Americans around the world, including the bombing of two Embassies in Africa in 1998 which left 224 people dead. Two of them may now face the death penalty for their role in the bombings.

After 12 days of deliberations, the jury in the New York trial of the associates of Osama bin Laden returned a 302 count indictment. The onus is now on the federal prosecutors to convince the jury why two out of the four men should be put to death for the killing of 224 persons, including 12 Americans in the twin bombings in Kenya and Tanzania. Thousands were injured in the blast. ``Taking into account what these men have done, they should have to pay. They should be hanged,'' said the Director of Criminal Investigation of Tanzania, Mr. Adadi Rajabu.

Attorneys for the two men facing the death penalty have argued that while their clients were involved in the bombings, their roles were quite minimal compared to the other defendants. The FBI pointed out that the Saudi citizen, Mohammed Rashed Daoud al'Owalhi and the Tanzanian, Khalfan Khamis Mohammed, had confessed to the bombing with the Saudi national admitting to riding in the truck carrying the bomb to the Embassy in Nairobi and throwing hand grenades at the security guards. Mohammed, who was arrested in South Africa and extradited to the U.S., apparently told investigators that he had rented the house used to build the bomb for blasting the mission in Tanzania, loaded the bomb on to the truck and rode some distance to the target.

The jury's verdict is the first conviction in the U.S. for crimes masterminded by Osama bin Laden. The U.S. attorney, Ms. Mary Jo White, called the Tuesday verdicts a ``triumph for world justice and for world unity in combating terrorism''.

The U.S. is trying to make the point that there will be no let up in its efforts to apprehend Bin Laden who is seen as the main mastermind for several acts of terrorism, including the attack on the USS Cole last October. The U.S. has a $5 million reward for Bin Laden who is now suspected to be in Afghanistan. The ruling Taliban regime in Kabul has said that the convictions over the bombings were unfair and vowed not to hand over Bin Laden.

Meanwhile, even as the death penalty is being sought for two of the convicted, a court in South Africa has ruled that as illegal the extradition of Mohammed to the U.S. The court said the local authorities had acted unlawfully in extraditing Mohammed and for failing to secure an assurance that there would be no execution if convicted. South Africa abolished the death penalty in 1994. The court in South Africa said it could not ``remedy the wrong'' but ordered that its decision be sent to the United States court urgently. In New York, the District Court Judge, Mr. Leonard Sand, has asked lawyers for the two accused men for comments. ``We are considering the implications. The judge has asked for our comments,'' said one of the lawyers for Mohammed.

Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Section  : International
Previous : U.N. official protests Taliban interference
Next     : Russia's call to Pak.