NEW YORK -- A New York judge has sentenced Osama bin Laden's son-in-law to life in prison for his conviction in a terrorism case.
Sulaiman Abu Ghaith was sentenced by Judge Lewis Kaplan on Tuesday morning. Abu Ghaith was convicted in March on charges he conspired to kill Americans in his role as a spokesman for al Qaeda.
The Kuwaiti imam became the voice of al Qaeda recruitment videotapes after the Sept. 11 attacks. He warned in one that 'the storm of planes' wouldn't stop.
Abu Ghaith testified at trial that his role was strictly religious.
Defense attorney Stanley Cohen asked the judge to impose a 15-year sentence. A prosecutor called for life in prison.
During the trial, Abu Ghaith recounted the night of the Sept. 11 attacks, when the al Qaeda leader sent a messenger to drive him into a mountainous area for a meeting inside a cave in Afghanistan.
'Did you learn what happened? We are the ones who did it,' Abu Ghaith recalled bin Laden telling him.
When bin Laden asked what he thought would happen next, Abu Ghaith testified that he responded by predicting America 'will not settle until it kills you and topples the state of the Taliban.'
Bin Laden responded: 'You're being too pessimistic,' Abu Ghaith recalled.
Abu Ghaith is the highest-ranking al Qaeda figure to face trial on U.S. soil since the 9/11 attacks.
The Kuwaiti-born defendant was flown to the United States a year ago from Jordan, where he was captured as he headed to Kuwait, which had revoked his citizenship after 9/11.
The CIA's Bin Laden group was able to track Abu Ghaith's movements to a luxury hotel in downtown Ankara. Abu Ghaith hoped to get help from the al Qaeda network to move to another country, but the CIA was working with the MIT, Turkey's national intelligence service, and they arrested Abu Ghaith.
Posted by Unknown on Tuesday, September 23, 2014 - Rating: 4.5
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