M A I N   N E W S

Life term for 4 Laden aides
Bombing of 2 US embassies in Africa

New York, October 18
Four members of suspected terrorist mastermind Osama bin Laden’s Al-Qaida network were sentenced to life in prison without possibility of parole here today for involvement in the US embassy bombing in east Africa in 1998.

Judge Leonard Sand handed down the sentences to Jordanian Mohamed Saddiq Odeh, 36, Khalfan Khamis Mohamed, 28, from Tanzania, Saudi Mohamed Rashid Daoud al-Owhali, 24, and Lebanese-American Wadih el-Hage, 41, in Manhattan federal court.

The judge remarked to the courtroom that "three members of the jury stated that life imprisonment is harsher than the death penalty."

Mohamed, Owhali and Odeh along with el-Hage were convicted in May of the 1998 bombings in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam that left more than 200 persons, including 12 Americans, dead.

Odeh’s lawyer, Anthony Reeko, said he would file an appeal on behalf of his client.

"He stands by the fact he’s a member of Al-Qaida and remains committed to Al-Qaida ... but the two don’t mean guilt," he told journalsists outside the courthouse.

Bin Laden is the prime suspect in the September 11 terrorist onslaught on the USA which destroyed the World Trade Center and damaged the Pentagon, leaving more than 5,000 persons dead.

Earlier, the police clamped choking security around a New York court today as four members of Bin Laden’s Al-Qaida network faced sentencing for the bombing of US embassies in East Africa in 1998.

The Manhattan federal court is three blocks from the smoking rubble of the twin towers of the World Trade Center, which crashed to the ground on September 11 in a terrorist attack blamed on Al-Qaida.

Roads approaching the complex were blocked off by police roadblocks and metal barricades, while dozens of US marshals toting sub-machine guns and pump-action shotguns were patrolling around the courthouse.

Bomb-sniffing dogs also checked all vehicles entering the area. AFP