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Guantanamo jury finds Yemeni guilty
Alleged Bin Laden aide found guilty of three terrorism-related charges.
Last Modified: 03 Nov 2008 16:42 GMT

Al-Bahlul has been held in Guantanamo
Bay since 2002 [GALLO/GETTY]

A US military tribunal has found an aide to Osama bin Laden guilty of three terrorism-related charges.

The jury of military officers at the second Guantanamo trial voted on Monday to convict Ali Hamza al-Bahlul of conspiracy, solicitation to commit murder and providing material support to terrorism.

The 39-year-old Yemeni national showed no emotion, sitting calmly at the defence table as the verdict was read at the isolated US military base in eastern Cuba, following a weeklong trial in which the prisoner did not mount a defence.

Al-Bahlul was convicted of 17 counts of conspiracy, eight counts of solicitation to commit murder and 10 counts of providing material support for terrorism.

Each count could bring life in prison.

The jury dismissed one count of conspiracy and one count of providing material support for terrorism.

'Media man'

FBI interrogators testified that al-Bahlul scripted the video-taped wills of two September 11 hijackers and made a two-hour al-Qaeda campaign commercial designed to recruit suicide bombers.

Al-Bahlul, who was brought to Guantanamo in 2002, is the second prisoner to go through a trial under the special military commissions system.

The first, former bin Laden driver Salim Hamdan, was convicted in August and sentenced to five-and-a-half years in prison.

Source:
Agencies
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