NEW YORK: A Libyan accused over the 1998 Al Qaeda bombings of US embassies in Africa died yesterday, days before he was to stand trial in New York, his lawyer and family said.
Abu Anas Al Libi, 50, was on the FBI’s most-wanted list with a $5m price on his head when he was captured by US troops in the Libyan capital Tripoli in October 2013.
He and Saudi businessman Khalid Al Fawwaz were due to stand trial on January 12 over the attacks on the US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania that killed 244 people and wounded more than 5,000.
Libi, a computer expert, died at a hospital in the New York area on Friday, his lawyer Bernard Kleinman told The Washington Post, saying the health of his client — who had advanced liver cancer — had deteriorated significantly in the last month.
Libi and Fawwaz both previously pleaded not guilty to conspiracy charges.
A third suspect, Egyptian Adel Abdel Bary, last year pleaded guilty to playing a role in the 1998 attacks.
Libi’s son Abdel Mouin told CNN by telephone from Tripoli early Saturday that his father had been in a coma before his death and that the family holds the US government “fully responsible” for his demise.
Libi, who also suffered from hepatitis C, was detained by US commandos on October 5, 2013, and interrogated on board a US warship before being handed over to FBI agents on October 12 and flown to New York.
He was questioned by the agents on board the flight, initially waiving his right to a lawyer, during which he made an incriminating statement.
But Libi had sought to supress the statement in court, saying he was on hunger strike at the time, raising questions about the extent to which he was cognizant when he waived his rights.
Investigators told the court Libi had informed them of the hunger strike during the flight, but that he had been hooked up to an IV and under medical supervision.
He was responsive, understood his rights, knowingly waived them and spoke willingly, and at no point appeared confused, investigator George Corey said.
The August 7, 1998 car bombing of the US embassy in Nairobi killed 213 people and wounded around 5,000.
A near simultaneous truck bomb outside the US mission in Tanzania killed 11 people and wounded 70 more.
In an indictment, prosecutors accused Libi of discussing in 1993 possible attacks against the US embassy in Nairobi, and of carrying out surveillance of the diplomatic mission.
In or around 1994, the indictment said, he received files concerning possible attacks against the embassy, the US Agency for International Development, and British, French and Israeli targets in Nairobi.
However, defense lawyer Kleinman says Libi was innocent and had cut his ties with Al-Qaeda before the 1998 attacks.
The United States faced criticism after the raid in which Libi was captured as he was parking his car in Tripoli, with Libya denouncing it as a kidnapping and rights groups accusing Washingon of violating his fundamental human rights.
AFP
NEW YORK: New York’s police commissioner asked members of the force attending services for the second officer slain in Brooklyn last month to refrain from the “act of disrespect” seen at his partner’s funeral, when some of the tens of thousands in uniform turned their backs on the mayor.
“A hero’s funeral is about grieving, not grievance,” wrote Commissioner Bill Bratton in a memo to be read at roll calls over the weekend, when a wake and funeral will be held for Wenjian Liu, believed to be the first Chinese-American police officer killed in the line of duty in the city.
The funeral for his partner, Rafael Ramos, was among the largest in the history of the department, with more than 20,000 officers from around the country filling streets around the church.
When de Blasio began his eulogy, many uniformed officers turned their backs on television monitors set up outside, in a gesture of disdain for the liberal mayor following his criticisms of police policies.
“For the last seven days, the city’s and the country’s consciousness has focused on an act of disrespect,” said Bratton, who had previously called the action inappropriate. He said it had stolen the “valor, honor and attention” that rightfully belonged to the slain officer.
Liu, 32, and Ramos, 40, were shot to death on December 20 as they sat in their squad car in Brooklyn. Their killer, Ismaaiyl Brinsley, who killed himself soon after, had said he was seeking to avenge the deaths this summer of two unarmed black men at the hands of white police officers.
The killing of Liu and Ramos further frayed relations between the rank and file and De Blasio, who vowed to end the New York Police Department’s stop-and-frisk policy when he ran for office in 2013.
The mayor, who has a biracial son, also offered qualified support for the wave of protests triggered late last year by the black men’s deaths in New York and Missouri.
Services for Liu were due to take place yesterday in Brooklyn, not far from where he lived with his wife of two months and his parents. A wake, closed to the public, was to be followed by a funeral that tens of thousands of police were expected to attend.
In a sign of the force’s broadening ethnic diversity, observances are expected to meld Chinese and Buddhist customs with the usual traditions of an NYPD funeral, which date to when Roman Catholic men of Irish or Italian descent dominated the force.
Ed Mullins, president of the Sergeants Benevolent Association, one of several city police unions, was among those who turned their backs on de Blasio as the mayor arrived at the hospital where Liu and Ramos were declared dead.
Reuters
