Embassy Blasts: Lawyers Face Tough Defense

Lawyers defending four followers of Osama bin Laden face the challenge next week of convincing a jury that their clients were excluded from the Saudi dissident’s conspiracy to kill Americans.

The defense side of the case, which could start as soon as Monday, follows U.S. District Judge Leonard Sand’s refusal to throw out key charges alleging that the defendants had links to bin Laden and his plans to attack U.S. targets.

Defense arguments are expected to last about three weeks, compared with about two months that federal prosecutors needed to introduce approximately 80 witnesses. Government witnesses included FBI agents who described confessions from two of the men about their direct participation in the 1998 bombings of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.

The four men on trial are among 22 defendants named in an indictment containing more than 300 counts of alleged participation in a broad conspiracy, beginning in 1989, to kill U.S. military personnel and civilians.

The plot allegedly included the August 1998 bombings of the embassies in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, and Nairobi, Kenya.

Bin Laden is among 13 fugitives listed in the indictment. The wealthy Saudi exile, believed to be living in Afghanistan, allegedly masterminded the twin embassy blasts, which killed 224 people, including 12 Americans, and injured thousands. Among the defendants on trial are Mohamed Rashed Daoud al-’Owhali, 24, a Saudi Arabian who allegedly was a passenger in the truck used in the Nairobi bombing and Khalfan Khamis Mohamed, 27, a Tanzanian who allegedly took part in the Dar es Salaam bombing. Both could face the death penalty if convicted.

The other defendants, Wadih El-Hage, 40, a naturalized U.S. citizen born in Lebanon, and Mohamed Sadeek Odeh, 26, a Jordanian, could face life imprisonment if convicted. They are charged in the overall conspiracy but are not accused of participating directly in the embassy bombings. The government alleged both men were actively involved with bin Laden’s militant al Qaeda organization.

On Thursday, Sand dismissed counts against Odeh and al-’Owhali alleging they were involved in the Tanzania bombing. However, they remain charged in key conspiracy counts accusing them of the overall plot to kill Americans.

During the government’s portion of the trial, FBI agent Abigail Perkins testified that Mohamed had confessed to his role in the Dar es Salaam bombing shortly after his arrest.

“It sent a message to America, because bombings were the only way Americans would listen,” she alleged that Mohamed had said.