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Bombings jury ends 9th day without verdict

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The four defendants, from left: Mohamed Rashed Daoud al-'Owhali, Khalfan Khamis Mohamed, Mohamed Sadeek Odeh and Wadih el Hage.  


NEW YORK (CNN) -- Jurors ended a ninth day of deliberations Tuesday afternoon in the trial of four men accused of participating in a worldwide conspiracy to kill Americans and destroy U.S. property that allegedly included the coordinated 1998 bombings of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.

The jury will reconvene Wednesday morning to consider the 302-count indictment that alleges the conspiracy, the bombings, the murders of the 224 people killed, and perjury to cover up the conspiracy.

The jurors sent no communications to the judge Tuesday. On Monday they asked for a read-back of the testimony of one witness and had asked the judge a question.

The four defendants are:

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Shattered Diplomacy: The U.S. Embassy Bombings Trial
An in-depth special report on the trial of four men charged with the embassy bombings
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Jury Questionnaire (FindLaw)
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Mohamed Rashed Daoud al-'Owhali, 24, a Saudi charged with executing the Kenya bombing.

Mohamed Sadeek Odeh, 36, a Jordanian charged with planning the Kenya bombing.

Khalfan Khamis Mohamed, 27, a Tanzanian charged with executing the Tanzania bombing.

Wadih el Hage, 40, a naturalized American, originally from Lebanon, charged with conspiracy for allegedly facilitating the East African terrorist cell. He also faces 18 perjury counts for allegedly lying to a grand jury about his ties to bin Laden and his associates.

All four are charged with participating in a conspiracy to kill Americans and to destroy U.S. property that was allegedly led by Saudi exile Osama bin Laden, a wanted fugitive in the case.

Nearly simultaneous explosions on August 7, 1998, killed 213 people, including 12 Americans, in Nairobi, Kenya, and 11 in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, and injured thousands.

In notes sent to the court Monday, the jury signaled it was finished considering the trial's most important counts -- Nos. 1 through 8 -- that cover the alleged conspiracy and the bombings and was focused on the murder counts -- one for each of the 224 people killed.

The jury asked the court to read back the testimony of one eyewitness who said he saw al-'Owhali participate in the bombing of the embassy in Kenya.

The witness, Charles Mwaka Mula, an embassy technician, had been fixing a water pump behind the embassy when the bomb-laden Toyota Dyna pickup truck entered the embassy's rear parking lot around 10:30 a.m. on August 7, 1998.

Mwaka Mula said al-'Owhali got out of the passenger side, threw stun grenades at the security gate so the truck could get closer to the building, then ran away. Mwaka Mula's recollection conformed with al-'Owhali's version of events in his post-arrest statement to the FBI. Al-'Owhali had turned a corner when the explosion occurred and sustained minor cuts and bruises.

Mwaka Mula later identified al-'Owhali in a Kenyan police line-up, and 2.5 years later in open court. The jury asked to review the line-up photo and the photos of al-'Owhali's injuries.

The jury asked the judge to clarify whether to find a defendant guilty of murder it had to determine that using his own weapons rather than "acting as a diversion" caused the deaths. The judge will answer on Tuesday.

Count Nos. 9 through 281 on the verdict form relate to the murder or attempted murder of the bombing casualties.

Another jury note pointed out the verdict form for count No. 8, which alleges the use of weapons of mass destruction in the Tanzania bombing, referred to the "Nairobi embassy" in one of the follow-up questions. The jury would be required to answer that follow-up question "if and only if" it had found the defendant guilty of the charge.

The note was a negative sign for Mohamed, the only defendant accused of carrying out the Dar es Salaam bombing and of murdering the 11 people who died it.

El Hage's wife, April, and their 14-year-old son, Abdullah, the eldest of their seven children, both visiting from Arlington, Texas, have been steady court observers since deliberations began. The family has had to settle mostly for exchanging waves and smiles across the courtroom.

El Hage's attorney, Sam Schmidt, told the court Monday a non-contact jail visit scheduled for Saturday was abandoned when jail guards refused to let el Hage see his wife and son without wearing handcuffs and leg shackles.

Schmidt said el Hage did not want his son to see him like that. Judge Sand, after speaking with the jail, told Schmidt that a less restrictive visit could take place late Monday afternoon.

The jury received the case late in the afternoon of May 10, slightly more than three months after it began to hear testimony. It heard from nearly 100 prosecution and defense witnesses and saw hundreds of pieces of evidence.

A majority of the exhibits are documents, including declarations by Saudi exile Osama bin Laden urging the killing of American soldiers and civilians. Bin Laden is accused of leading the conspiracy and orchestrating the embassy bombings.

Federal prosecutors say all the defendants are tied to bin Laden -- as a business associate, a member of his Islamic militant group, al Qaeda, or as trainees in his military camps in Afghanistan, where bin Laden and some of his followers live.


Greta@LAW






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