According to a Bloomberg report, the son-in-law of notorious terrorist Osama Bin Laden will not be able to use a testimony to get out of criminal charges for conspiring to kill US nationals after the attacks on September 11, 2001. A Manhattan federal judge has dismissed the permission of Sulaiman Abu Ghayth to use the testimony of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed to bolster his claim that the US court has charged the wrong man.
Abu Ghayth, said Bloomberg, is the the highest ranking al-Qaeda member currently tried in a civilian court in the US. Abu Ghayth is standing trial for conspiring with bin Laden and other members of the al-Qaeda in several terrorist attacks, which include a botched scheme to bomb passenger jets. The Kuwaiti national is reportedly the most influential surviving leaders after bin Laden was killed by US Navy SEALs in May 2011.
The report said that lawyers for the defendant were trying to obtain the testimony of Mohamed, whom they said was qualified to vindicate Ghayth from the claims that he was a high-tier member of the terrorist organization. At the moment, Mohammed is reportedly detained at US' military prison in Guantanamo Bay awaiting trial.
One of Abu Ghayth's lawyers, Stanley Cohen, told presiding US District Judge Lewis Kaplan that Mohamed's 14-page statement regarding the defense tem's questions with regard to Abu Ghayth's innocence. Cohen said that Mohamed's lawyer, David Nevin, refused to turn over the document for fear that his client's statements will also be obtained by US intelligence agencies.
"He indicated to me he learned this was now going to a number of military intelligence or intelligence agencies unrelated to the prosecution. It was as a result of this he elected to keep the 14-page declaration in a safe in his office," Cohen confided to Kaplan in court.
Bloomberg said Kaplan was skeptical about Mohamed's statements and refused this purported evidence to delay Abu Ghayth's trial. He said, "The bottom line is that no answers have been turned over. The possibility that they will ever be turned over for security review is a matter of speculation."
