NEW YORK : US prosecutors on Monday linked Osama bin Laden’s son-in-law to the 2001 shoe bomber plot and added two extra charges against the Kuwaiti, who faces life behind bars if convicted.
Sulaiman Abu Ghaith, 47, whose trial in New York is scheduled to begin on February 3, was initially charged on one count of conspiracy to kill Americans after his arrest last February. But a superceding indictment Friday added charges of conspiracy to provide material support and resources to terrorists, and providing material support and resources to terrorists. Abu Ghaith on Monday entered a not guilty plea to all charges. In a court hearing, prosecutors alleged he was complicit in the December 2001 shoe bomber plot to bring down an airline. British, self-confessed Al-Qaeda recruit Richard Reid is serving a life sentence in the United States for trying to blow up a flight from Paris to Miami using bombs hidden in his shoes.
Abu Ghaith was detained by US agents in Jordan at the end of February and flown to New York.
He is best-known for his incendiary statements alongside bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri in the immediate aftermath of 9/11.
In a speech cited by US government prosecutors, Abu Ghaith defended the attacks and warned Americans the “storms shall not stop, especially the airplanes storm.”