MAR. 25, 2014
Jurors weighing the case of Sulaiman Abu Ghaith, a former top adviser toOsama bin Laden who later married his daughter, were sent home on Tuesday after deliberating for half a day without reaching a verdict.
Earlier on Tuesday, Judge Lewis A. Kaplan of United States District Court gave the jury its instructions, outlining the three charges against Mr. Abu Ghaith. They include conspiring to kill Americans, providing material support to terrorists and conspiring to provide that support.
Mr. Abu Ghaith, 48, could face life imprisonment if convicted on the first count alone.
After jurors began deliberating, they sent a cryptic note to the judge, requesting four pages of witness testimony that reflected various points of disagreement between a prosecutor and Mr. Abu Ghaith’s lawyer, Stanley L. Cohen, as made in their closing arguments.
Mr. Cohen, asked later about the note, said only, “They are a smart jury and they’re working.” The United States attorney’s office declined to comment.
Mr. Abu Ghaith is a former Kuwaiti cleric who was known for his fiery oratory. Prosecutors in Manhattan have said that immediately after the Sept. 11 attacks, he agreed, at Bin Laden’s request, to become a spokesman for Al Qaeda.
After unexpectedly taking the witness stand last week in his own defense, Mr. Abu Ghaith gave testimony about being summoned to Bin Laden’s cave just hours after the Sept. 11 attacks, and being asked the next day to help Bin Laden “deliver a message to the world.”
The trial is in its third week. At day’s end, the nine women and three men of the jury sent another note to the judge. “We are all tired and mentally exhausted,” they wrote, asking to break for the day.
The jury was told to resume its deliberations on Wednesday.
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/26/nyregion/jurors-begin-deliberations-in-osama-bin-laden-relatives-case.html
No comments:
Post a Comment