June 20, 2013

Crime History: 'Blind Sheik,' conspirators on trial for WTC bombing

BY: SCOTT MCCABE JANUARY 8, 2013 | 8:00 PM
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On this day, Jan. 9, in 1995, the trial began in New York for Sheik Omar Abdel-Rahman and his henchmen, accused of waging a war of terrorism against the United States.

The group was charged with seditious conspiracy, an obscure 19th-century law that makes it a crime to conspire to overthrow the U.S. government.

Abdel-Rahman, a fiery Muslim known as "The Blind Sheikh," was accused of conspiring in the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center, which killed six people, assassinating a rabbi in a Manhattan hotel in 1990, and plotting to blow up other key buildings, bridges and tunnels around New York City.

After an eight-month trial, Abdel-Rahman and nine others were convicted. Abdel-Rahman received a life sentence. Other conspirators received sentences of 25 years to life-

-- Scott McCabe

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Scott McCabe

Staff Writer - Crime
The Washington Examiner

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