NEW YORK, JANUARY 23 (Sputnik) – Prosecutors made opening arguments in the Manhattan federal court trial of a Saudi man over the twin 1998 bombings of US embassies in Africa, saying he was a prominent figure in the al-Qaeda terror franchise.
Khalid al-Fawwaz faces five terrorism charges, including conspiring to kill Americans, for his role as a supporter and mouthpiece for al-Qaeda and for laying the groundwork for the group's embassy bombings in East Africa.
The August 7, 1998, truck bombings at US embassies in Dar es Salam, Tanzania, and Nairobi, Kenya, killed more than 220 people, including 12 Americans, and wounded thousands of others – one of al-Qaeda's biggest hits on US targets before 9/11.
Al-Fawwaz was arrested in 1998 in London and brought to the US in 2012 after losing a lengthy extradition battle. He originally had two co-defendants, Abu Anas al-Liby of Libya and Abdul Adel Bary of Egypt. He denies the charges.
