Osama bin Laden's son-in-law has gone on trial in the US, accused of conspiring to kill Americans after the September 11 attacks and supporting a terrorist organisation.
Sulaiman Abu Ghaith, who is married to bin Laden's eldest daughter Fatima, is the highest-ranking al-Qaeda figure to face trial on US soil since suicide attackers struck the city's twin towers.
Jurors have heard him portrayed both as a murderous mouthpiece for al-Qaeda and as a target of a prosecution designed to play on fears and resentments from the September 11, 2001, terror attacks.
In opening statements, Assistant US Attorney Nicholas Lewin told the jury bin Laden had summoned Abu Ghaith on the afternoon of September 11, 2001, and asked him to use his oratory skills as the public face of al-Qaeda to recruit and inspire recruits to attack the US again.
"While our buildings still burned, he agreed ... in what is the most important moment in al-Qaeda's savage history," Lewin said, showing jurors a photo of Abu Ghaith sitting side by side with bin Laden in Afghanistan on September 12, 2001.
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"He invoked his twisted view of Islam and declared, 'Fight thee against the friends of Satan. Fight with al-Qaeda against America'."
Defence attorney Stanley Cohen said his client wasn't involved in September 11 plot.
"This is not Osama bin Laden," Cohen said, pointing to Abu Ghaith. "This is Sulaiman Abu Ghaith, a Muslim, an Arab from Kuwait, a husband, a father, an imam, a talker, an ideologue."
Kuwaiti-born Abu Ghaith, 48, has pleaded not guilty to conspiring to kill Americans after the New York attacks and providing material support and resources to a terrorist organisation.
Prosecutors allege Abu Ghaith began his rise through the ranks for al-Qaeda by becoming a motivational speaker at safe houses and training camps for aspiring jihadists in the months before September 11.
Afterwards, bin Laden instructed him to lead recruitment efforts by appearing in widely distributed videos.
"For more than a year after, the defendant used the murderous power of his words to try to strengthen al-Qaeda," Lewin said.
He quoted Abu Ghaith as saying, weeks after the attack, "These young men who have destroyed the United States and launched the storm of airplanes against it have done a good deed. The storm of airplanes will not abate."
The government contends the statements are evidence Abu Ghaith had prior knowledge of the failed shoe-bomb airline attack by Richard Reid in December 2001 and another plot to down a flight from Paris to Miami with explosives hidden in shoes.
Cohen told jurors they might feel outrage over some of the "dumb" and "stupid" statements made by his client but he urged jurors to keep open minds.
"At the end of the day, there's really no evidence," Cohen said.
The trial is expected to last about a month.
