February 2001 World Headlines

Wednesday, February 7, 2001 - Web posted at 10:26:43 AM GMT

US embassy bombings trial gets underway

NEW YORK - Defence attorneys for four men on trial for the bombings of two US embassies say their clients are being prosecuted unfairly for being associated with Osama bin Laden or his organisation.

But during opening arguments on Monday, one defence lawyer acknowledged his client played a role in one of the two bombings that together killed 224 people on August 7 1998.

Defence attorney Jeremy Schneider said Khalfan Khamis Mohamed, 27, of Tanzania, mixed explosives and helped load the bomb-laden truck used in the Tanzania blast but did not know anything about the plot and did not know Bin Laden."

"He was a pawn, someone who was willing to do what he was told to do," Schneider said.

"He is not an evil person."

"Assistant US Attorney Paul Butler began his opening statements by promising jurors a chilling account of the nearly simultaneous attacks on embassies in Nairobi, Kenya, and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.

Thousands of people were injured and 12 Americans were among the dead."

"What it did to human beings that day defies description," he said of the deadly blasts.

"Words and numbers can't capture the horror."

"All four of these defendants entered into an illegal agreement with Bin Laden and others to kill Americans anywhere they could be found," Butler said.

The defence acknowledged the scope of the tragedy but said their clients were being prosecuted unfairly for being associated with Bin Laden or his organisation, al Qaeda."

"The evidence will not show all the pieces of the puzzle," defence attorney Sam Schmidt said.

"The government will ask you to put a small number of pieces together and to guess the other pieces."

"Prosecutors expect to call 100 witnesses from six countries before the trial ends late in the year.

Among them, a man close to Bin Laden who agreed to cooperate with prosecutors after he stole money from Bin Laden and got caught.

- Nampa-Sapa-AP

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