An alleged al Queda computer mastermind who has been under indictment in New York for more than 10 years pleaded not guilty in a federal court in Manhattan on Tuesday in response to charges related to his alleged involvement in terrorist bombings of two U.S. embassies in Africa.
Abu Anas al-Libi, whose given name is Nazih Abdul Hamed al-Raghie, 49, has been on the FBI's most wanted list with a $5.2 million dollar price on his head since the attacks, ABC News reports.
Al-Libi was captured on October 5 in Tripoli, Libya's capital city, by a team of U.S. special operations forces. He was interrogated for a week on a U.S. Navy warship before being transferred from military custody into the hands of law enforcement officials who were waiting to bring him to New York.
Al-Libi's decade-long federal indictment charges him with killing 224 people, including 12 Americans in related bomb attacks in 1998, CBS News reports. He is said to be one of al Queda's early computer experts and alleged to have helped plan and carry out surveillance for the bombings of U.S. embassies in Nairobi, Kenya and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.
The presiding judge in this case, Judge Lewis Kaplan, announced in court a laundry list of charges against Libi that include conspiring to murder, kidnap, maim, kill, destroy property and attack U.S. defense buildings. The severities of his accusations are indeed serious, but the charges do not carry the death penalty according to reports.
Fox News reports that al-Libi's return to New York to face charges was publicly criticized by Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.). Inhofe maintains that Libi should have been transported to Guantanamo Bay.
"It is despicable that under the direction of President Obama foreign terrorists who have targeted and killed innocent people are being provided the same rights as American citizens," Inhofe said in a statement. "Now that he is on U.S. soil, he will be read his Miranda rights, making it much more difficult to gather intelligence to prevent future attacks."
"If al Libi were instead detained in Guantanamo Bay, he could be held for the duration of hostilities, his interrogation could continue, and still stand trial," Inhofe said.
After Tuesday's proceedings, al-Libi was handcuffed and removed from the courtroom. Kaplan ordered the alleged terrorist detained until his next court appearance on October 22 due to his being seen as an extreme flight risk.
According to al-Libi's family and associates, the accusations of him being an al Queda operative are completely false and he has reportedly been living as a law-abiding citizen since returning home to his family in 2011.
"The presumption of innocence is not a small technicality here...In a 150-page indictment, [Libi] is mentioned in a mere three paragraphs relating to conduct in 1993 and 1995 and nothing since," said al-Libi's court-appointed federal defender David Patton after the hearing. "The allegation is that he met with al Queda members about a possible bombing of the American embassy in Nairobi, Kenya, that ended up taking place five years later in 1998."
"There is no allegation that he had any connection to al Queda after 1994, and he is eager to move forward with the legal process in this case," Patton added.
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