World Trade Center trial delayed

Prosecutors say Ramzi Yousef was the mastermind

NEW YORK (CNN) --Opening statements have been delayed until Tuesday in the trial of Ramzi Yousef, who prosecutors say was the mastermind of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. His trial was to start Monday. Yousef's charges stem from his alleged role in the blast that killed six people and injured more than 1,000. The delay is due to the illness of a juror and the dismissal of an alternate.

Yousef is already serving a life sentence for his conviction last year in another bombing conspiracy. In that case, Yousef was convicted of trying in early 1995 to plant liquid bombs on a dozen U.S. airliners flying from Asian cities.

As testimony gets under way this week, more details are expected to emerge about a man whom U.S. authorities say is one the decade's most notorious international terrorists.

Prosecutors say Yousef arrived in New York on a phony Iraqi passport in September 1992 and hooked up with a Palestinian immigrant named Mohammed Salameh. Prosecutors hope to prove the two set out to build a bomb to topple the massive World Trade Center towers in lower Manhattan.

Salameh and three other men were caught within weeks of the fatal bombing, convicted and sentenced to life in prison.

Standing trial with Yousef will be Eyad Ismoil, a Palestinian who apparently knew Yousef in Kuwait. He came to the United States in 1989 to study engineering, wound up in Dallas and flew to New York five days before the bombing.

Prosecutors say Ismoil drove the van filled with explosives into the trade center's underground garage and helped Yousef set the fuse. That night, they flew out on separate flights to the Middle East.

Terrorism expert Brian Jenkins says the way this plot was pulled together helped set a new tone for terrorism.

"Terrorism in the 1970s and 1980s was carried out by relatively discreet, identifiable groups," Jenkins says "Terrorism in the 1990s is carried out by ad hoc conspiracies."

The FBI tracked Ismoil to his parents' home in Jordan and brought him to New York six months after nabbing Yousef. Another suspect, Abdul Raham Yasin, is still at large and believed to be hiding in Iraq.

Bomb residue evidence that had been processed in the FBI crime lab was introduced at Salameh's trial. A federal report later termed testimony regarding the troubled crime lab as "deeply flawed."

However, U.S. District Court Judge Kevin Duffy has ruled that an FBI lab examiner will be allowed to testify in Yousef's trial that it was a 1,200-pound urea nitrate bomb that caused the World Trade Center blast.

Related stories:

• Suspect goes on trial in World Trade Center bombing - July 14, 1997
• Plane terror suspects convicted on all counts - September 5, 1996
• FBI chief: U.S. 'under attack' by terrorists - August 1, 1996
• Sheik gets life sentence in terror trial - January 17, 1996

Search for related CNN stories:   [Help] Tip: You can restrict your search to the title of a document. Example: title:New Year's Resolutions

Sound off on our message boards Tell us what you think! You said it...

© 1997 Cable News Network, Inc.
All Rights Reserved.

Terms under which this service is provided to you.