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Bombing suspect 'no mental giant,' his lawyer says
In this report:
November 4, 1997
Web posted at: 5:44 p.m. EST (2244 GMT)NEW YORK (CNN) -- Saying that his client was "no mental giant," the attorney for one of two men accused in the bombing of the World Trade Center said prosecutors had exaggerated his client's role in the case.
Louis Aidala, the lawyer for Eyad Ismoil, said his client was tricked into helping others carry out the bombing by loading boxes -- he thought they contained cleaning supplies -- into a van.
"Ismoil's no mental giant," Aidala said.
However, Assistant U.S. Attorney David Kelly said Ismoil, a Palestinian, played a key role in the bombing and told authorities a "pathetic lie" when he claimed he thought boxes in the van contained soap and shampoo.
Ismoil visited the bomb factory, Kelly said, and loaded the van at a storage locker where he would have seen boxes labeled "danger" and "gunpowder."
"The last I heard, that's not an ingredient for shampoo," Kelly told jurors.
Wrapping up his case before Aidala began, Kelly said Ismoil and co-defendant Ramzi Yousef, the accused mastermind of the bombing, were cowards who wanted to burn people in a "twisted form of protest."
In the court, Yousef and Ismoil watched closely as Kelly summed up three months of what he described as "indisputable scientific evidence" against them.
Defendants face life in prison
The prosecution contends that the two drove a bomb-laden van into the trade center's underground garage, intending to topple the twin 110-story towers, kill tens of thousands of people and shock the United States into ending or curtailing its aid to Israel.
Six people were killed in the February 26, 1993, attack, more than 1,000 were injured and the complex sustained more than $500 million in damage.
Yousef, an electrical engineer of undetermined nationality, is accused of organizing a group of accomplices and building the bomb. He was arrested in Pakistan, and Ismoil in Jordan, in 1995.
Both are charged with conspiracy and face life in prison if convicted. Four other men have already been convicted of the same charge and each has been sentenced to 240 years in prison. Another suspect fled the country and has not been apprehended.
Kelly cited fingerprints left by both men at the Jersey City, New Jersey, apartment where the bomb was made. He also said they were linked to the bombing by telephone records, orders for bomb chemicals and pictures taken by security cameras of automated teller machines.
Kelly said much of the proof rested in scorch marks and explosive chemical residues throughout the makeshift bomb factory.
Yousef a 'cold-blooded terrorist'
He called Yousef a "cold-blooded terrorist" and described messages allegedly delivered after the bombing threatening more attacks in retaliation for U.S. aid to Israel.
"He came into this country with a plan to blow people up," Kelly said.
Last year, Yousef was convicted of killing a Japanese man with a bomb he put aboard a plane in 1994 and of plotting to bomb a dozen U.S. airliners in January 1995. He has not yet been sentenced.
After the bombing, security was tightened throughout the United States and barriers and obstacles became a standard part of every architect's plan when designing a large building.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Special Sections:
- Message Board: World Trade Center bombing trial
- Video Almanac: 1993 - Bomb blasts World Trade Center
Related stories:
- World Trade Center suspect called bombing ringleader - November 3, 1997
- Prosecutor: Yousef aimed to topple Trade Center towers - August 5, 1997
- World Trade Center trial postponed a day - August 4, 1997
- World Trade Center suspect goes on trial Monday - August 3, 1997
- Suspect goes on trial in World Trade Center bombing - July 14, 1997
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