OSAMA BIN LADEN’S son-in-law has been found guilty of US terror charges today in a court in New York.
Suleiman Abu Ghaith is married to bin Laden’s daughter, Fatima.
The New York Times reports that the jury returned its verdict on its second day of deliberations in the trial and Abu Ghaith was convicted of three counts: conspiracy to kill Americans, for which he could face life in prison; and providing material support to terrorists, as well as conspiring to do so, which each carry maximum terms of 15 years, the newspaper reports.
The 48-year-old unexpectedly took the witness stand last week, where he denied that he plotted to “kill Americans”.
Speaking in Arabic, translated into English by an interpreter, Abu Ghaith also denied trying to recruit people for Al-Qaeda, as prosecutors alleged.
He said he had never met Richard Reid, a British man who tried to explode a bomb hidden in his shoes on a Paris-Miami flight in December 2001, three months after the 9/11 attacks.
9/11
Abu Ghaith is most famous for appearing in a video with bin Laden the day after the 9/11 attacks, which killed nearly 3,000 people in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania.
The US government said Abu Ghaith, in the video, warned the United States of a large army forming against it and that the attacks would be relentless.
This speech, Abu Ghaith testified, was based on “quotes and points” established by Bin Laden.
Additional reporting - © AFP, 2014
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