Embassy bombings: Former Osama Bin Laden accomplice sentenced to life imprisonement

It is noteworthy that Khalid al Fawwaz had been arrested in London the same year when the incident took place

A New York court sentenced an aide of Osama Bin Laden, Khalid al-Fawwaz, to life in prison Friday over his role in the 1998 al Qaeda bombings of US embassies in East Africa which killed 224 people.

Fawwaz, a 52-year-old described in court as one of late al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden's most trusted lieutenants, was convicted in February after a five week trial.

The August 7, 1998 bombings of the US embassies in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam, which wounded more than 5,000 people, marked the first major attacks in al Qaeda's war against the United States.

Federal Judge Lewis Kaplan handed down the life sentence against Fawwaz, who was found guilty on four counts of conspiracy to kill Americans and destroy property.

Arrested in London in September 1998, he has already spent 16 years in custody, most of it fighting extradition to the United States.

US prosecutors said Fawwaz headed one of the original al Qaeda training camps in the mountains of Afghanistan, led a terrorist cell in Kenya, and spent years shaping and disseminating al Qaeda's message from London, including bin Laden's 1998 fatwa exhorting supporters to kill Americans around the world.

"Fawwaz was one of Osama bin Laden's original and most trusted lieutenants," US Attorney Preet Bharara said after his conviction.

Fawwaz, he said, was ninth on the list of al Qaeda's original 107 members.

Defense lawyer Bobbi Sternheim, in contrast, described her client as nothing more than a "calm and serene" man who dedicated his life to peaceful reform in his homeland.

She claimed he had never shared the violent views of bin Laden and al Qaeda, was never a member of al Qaeda and was only interested in fighting corruption in Saudi Arabia.

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‘I wanted reform, not rebellion’

The convict had also called been accused of operating the office and dispatch communication equipment as well as satellite phone to his ‘first-in-command’.

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During the hearing, the sentence was read out by a jury in Manhattan as the downtown courthouse was guarded with stringent security.

Counsels for the convict contended that ‘he was a peaceful political dissent and not a notorious militant.

Al Fawwaz told the victims present in the courtroom, "My goal was reform, not rebellion."

The article first appeared on BBC