Court convicts Bin Laden’s son-in-law

Osama bin Laden’s son-in-law, the voice of fiery al-Qaeda propaganda videotapes after the 9/11 attacks, was yesterday convicted of conspiring to kill Americans for his role as the terror group’s spokesman.

The verdict came after six hours of deliberation over two days in the case against Kuwaiti imam Sulaiman Abu Ghaith, the highest-ranking al-Qaeda figure to face trial on US soil since the attacks.

As the verdict was read, Abu Ghaith remained composed as he had throughout the trial. Just before he was led out of the courtroom, he turned toward a spectator — a longtime friend from Kuwait — and smiled.

In a statement, US attorney Preet Bharara said he hoped the verdict brought some measure of comfort to victims of al-Qaeda.

“He was more than just Osama bin Laden’s propaganda minister,” he said. “Within hours after the devastating 9/11 attacks, Abu Ghaith was using his position in al-Qaeda’s homicidal hierarchy to persuade others to pledge themselves to al-Qaeda in the cause of murdering more Americans.”

Defence lawyer Stanley Cohen emerged from court promising to appeal.

Asked about his client, he said: “He was stoic. He was at ease. He has confidence this is not the end but the beginning.”

Abu Ghaith had testified that he answered bin Laden’s request in the hours after the attacks to speak on the videos used to recruit followers willing to go on suicide missions.

“The storm of airplanes will not stop,” Abu Ghaith warned in an October 2001 video that was played for the jury.

Also shown were frames of a video made on September 12, 2001, that showed Abu Ghaith with bin Laden and two other al-Qaeda leaders as they tried to justify the attacks.

Sentencing was set for September 8.