US jails ex-Bin Laden aide for embassy attacks

A former aide to Osama bin Laden
has been sentenced to life in prison
by a court in the US for conspiring in
the deadly 1998 bombings of two
US embassies in Africa.
Judge Lewis Kaplan said on Friday
that Khaled al-Fawwaz was an
eager supporter of bin Laden’s
goals even before the attacks in
Kenya and Tanzania that killed 224
people, including a dozen US
citizens.
Fawwaz turned toward victims of
the bombings and spoke of his
remorse minutes before his
sentence was announced.
“I can’t find words to describe how
terribly sad and sorry I am,” Fawwaz
said.
“I don’t support violence…I hope
one day people will find other ways
to live with their differences other
than violence.”
Kaplan announced Fawwaz’s
sentence after three victims spoke,
including Ellen Karas, who was left
blind by the attacks, the Associated
Press news agency reported.
“I worship the same God as you,”
she told the defendant. “But he is
not an angry God. He is not a
vengeful God.”
Fawwaz lawyer had asked that he
be sentenced to less than life in
prison, saying he was less culpable
than others.