A federal jury in Manhattan Wednesday found Sulaiman Abu Ghayth guilty of conspiring to kill U.S. nationals, scheming to provide material support to al-Qaida and providing manpower to the group through his recruiting efforts. Jurors reached their verdict after six hours of deliberations following a three-week trial in a courthouse blocks from where World Trade Center once stood.
Abu Ghayth, 48, is the most senior al-Qaida member to be tried in a U.S. civilian court since the Obama administration in 2011 abandoned its plan to try Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the self- proclaimed mastermind of the Sept. 11 attacks. Mohammed is facing prosecution in a military tribunal in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. In 2010, Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani was convicted of terrorism charges after a federal trial in New York, the first Guantanamo Bay detainee tried in U.S. civilian court.
Ghayth was captured by American agents after a decade-long manhunt and is regarded as among the group's most influential surviving leaders after Navy SEALs killed bin Laden in May 2011. For security, the identities of the panel of nine women and three men weren't disclosed in court and they were escorted to and from the building by U.S. Marshals throughout the trial.
The conspiracy to kill Americans charge carries a maximum sentence of life in prison. U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan, who presided over the trial, set sentencing for Sept. 8.
Abu Ghayth was portrayed by prosecutors as an "essential" member of al-Qaida in his role as a spokesman for the group in numerous videos made in the wake of the attacks. The government also alleged he had advance knowledge of other plots, including a foiled scheme in which convicted terrorist Richard Reid participated to detonate shoe bombs on passenger jets.
Abu Ghayth, an Islamic cleric originally from Kuwait, testified in his own defense that he didn't play any role in terrorist plots. He insisted that when he preached to recruits at an al-Qaida training camp in 2001 at bin Laden's request, he urged them to have "merciful hearts." His lawyers claimed the government didn't prove that he was involved in planning the Sept. 11 attacks or knew of the shoe-bomb plot.
Ghayth was more than just bin Laden's "propaganda minister," Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara said in a statement. "Within hours after the devastating 9/11 attacks, Abu Ghayth was using his position in al Qaeda's homicidal hierarchy to persuade others to pledge themselves to al Qaeda in the cause of murdering more Americans."
The trial featured testimony from two admitted terrorists who were in Afghanistan and in al-Qaida terrorist training camps and met with bin Laden and other leaders before and after the 2001 attacks. Jurors were also presented with recordings and videotapes of Abu Ghayth warning of more attacks against the U.S.
The U.S. alleged that by willingly agreeing on Sept. 11, 2001, to speak on behalf of al-Qaida in statements and videos to help attract new recruits and suicide bombers, Abu Ghayth had joined the conspiracy to kill Americans. Because his statements also incited others to join as suicide bombers, prosecutors said Abu Ghayth had also provided material support to the terror group.
"al-Qaida needed to send a message that the attacks of Sept. 11 were justified, that the U.S. got what it deserved," Assistant U.S. Attorney John Cronan said during closing arguments. "A message that would encourage al-Qaida's fighters. A message that would help replenish al-Qaida's new crop of suicide bombers. So just hours after four planes came crashing into our country, amid al-Qaida's savage success and the utter chaos of that terrible day, Osama bin Laden turned to this man," the prosecutor said, pointing at Abu Ghayth in court.
One video shown to the jury was made on Sept. 12, 2001, and shows Abu Ghayth alongside bin Laden, Ayman al-Zawahiri, bin Laden's deputy, and Abu Hafs al-Masry, head of al-Qaida's military operations, as bin Laden took credit for the attacks.
"America must be ready and stand by and let them fasten their seatbelt, as we will strike them — by the permission of Allah the Glorified and the Almighty — where they least expect it," Abu Ghayth said in that recording.
Another was an October 2001 videotaped statement in which Abu Ghayth promised a "storm of airplanes would continue" and warned that "if the organization of al-Qaida promises or threatens, it fulfills." The U.S. said this was a reference to the shoe-bomb plot that was foiled in December of that year.
In a third video, Abu Ghayth cited al-Qaida's 1998 bombings of the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, resulting in 224 deaths, which he called "a tremendous historical victory that broke the back of Americans."
The defendant initially claimed his arrest was a case of mistaken identity, that the man the U.S. wanted is a detainee in Guantanamo Bay. Kaplan rejected that defense as "utterly meritless" and said it couldn't be presented to the jury. The judge also rejected Abu Ghayth's request to use Mohammed as a witness.
When he took the stand, Abu Ghayth said that in 2001, after moving his family from Kuwait to Afghanistan and staying behind when his wife and children moved back, he preached at al-Qaida camps and safe houses at the request of bin Laden.
"The training camps involve too many things, weapons, training, roughness, a hard life," he said bin Laden told him. "I need you to change that to merciful hearts. I want you to train them to have that inside them."
Abu Ghayth told jurors that bin Laden summoned him to a meeting on the evening of Sept. 11, 2001. He said he met the terror leader outside a cave, camped out in a mountainous area of Afghanistan, accompanied by al-Zawahiri and al-Masry. He told jurors bin Laden told him, "We are the ones who did this" and asked for his help speaking out on behalf of the group.
Abu Ghayth testified that statements he made in the videos had been "talking points" provided by bin Laden and not his views.
Abu Ghayth married bin Laden's eldest daughter Fatima in either 2008 or 2009, his defense lawyer Stanley Cohen said. Cohen said in an interview after court Wednesday that he didn't regret putting his client on the stand.
"No, not at all," Cohen said.
Cohen said he intended to appeal and is considering making a motion asking Kaplan to set aside the conviction. Cohen said several rulings and comments made by the judge impaired his client's ability to receive a fair trial, including the judge's denial of a defense request to call Mohammed as a witness. Earlier Wednesday Kaplan suggested to jurors that if they hadn't reached a decision by the end of the day, he was considering asking them to remain longer.
"The statements are coercive when he tells the jury that they should be done today," Cohen said. Abu Ghayth remained stoic as the verdict was announced by the judge's courtroom deputy and nodded as the final count was read.
"He is confident this is the beginning and not the end," Cohen said.
Cohen argued to the jury during the trial that prosecutors, lacking evidence against his client, were trying to sway them by invoking bin Laden's name dozens of times.
"The government's summation was designed to sweep you away in anguish and pain and look away from the lack of evidence in this case," Cohen said during his closing.
Cohen contended the government failed to prove that Abu Ghayth was aware of the foiled shoe-bomb plot. He said that when Saajid Badat, a British man who admitted being part of that foiled scheme, was shown a photo of his client, he failed to recognize Abu Ghayth even though he had identified many top al-Qaida officials.
"There's no proof he recruited fighters, there's no evidence that Sulaiman Abu Ghayth was involved in recruiting fighters before Sept. 11," Cohen said. "There's no evidence he was at the top of al-Qaida before Sept. 11 and not a shred of evidence, not a single drop of evidence, that Sulaiman Abu Ghayth knew anything about the Saajid Badat and Richard Reid conspiracy."
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