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.
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