Five convicted of Sears Tower attack plot

Five men were convicted of plotting to join forces with al-Qaida to destroy Chicago’s Sears Tower and bomb FBI offices in hopes of igniting an anti-government insurrection.

The jury in Miami, Florida, acquitted another member of the so-called “Liberty City Six” in the sixth day of deliberations last night. Two previous trials ended in mistrials when jurors could not agree on the men’s guilt or innocence.

A seventh man acquitted after the first 2007 trial, Lyglenson Lemorin, 34, is being deported to Haiti.

The men, most of whom are Haitian or have Haitian ancestry, were arrested in June 2006 on charges of plotting terrorism with an undercover FBI informant they believed was from al-Qaida.

But defence lawyers said terrorist talk recorded on dozens of FBI audio and video tapes was not serious and the men, who lived in Miami’s downtrodden inner-city neighbourhood known as Liberty City, wanted only money.

Ringleader Narseal Batiste, 35, was the only one convicted of all four terrorism-related conspiracy counts, including plotting to provide material support to terrorists and conspiring to wage war against the US. Batiste, who was on the vast majority of FBI recordings, faces up to 70 years in prison.

Batiste’s right-hand man, 29-year-old Patrick Abraham, was convicted on three counts and faces 50 years behind bars. Convicted on two counts and facing 30 years are 24-year-old Burson Augustin, 25-year-old Rotschild Augustine and 33-year-old Stanley Phanor. Naudimar Herrera, 25, was cleared of all four charges.

US District Judge Joan Lenard set sentencing for July 27.

Herrera criticised the prosecution as “bogus” and insisted the men banded together not for terrorism but to explore ways to lift up the impoverished, drug-infested area.

“It’s not right,” he said outside court. “We were really all about helping the community.”

The jury endured a two-month trial, then had to restart deliberations last week after one juror was excused for illness and a second was booted off the panel for being unco-operative.

After the verdicts were read, court security officials escorted the jury - whose names were kept secret – out of the building before they could be interviewed.

The arrests were initially hailed as a major success by President George Bush’s administration, an example of disrupting potential attacks at the earliest possible stages.

But two previous juries struggled with the lack of solid evidence indicating the men took any steps to pull off such major mass assaults, such as possessing bomb-making manuals or building blueprints.

“This was a difficult trial, and we thank all the prosecutors and agents involved, whose efforts resulted in today’s successful conclusion,” said Miami US Attorney Alexander Acosta.

Prosecutors Richard Gregorie and Jacqueline Arango focused on the group’s intent as captured on dozens of FBI audio and video recordings. Batiste was repeatedly heard espousing violence against the US government and saying the men should start a “full ground war” that would “kill all the devils”.

“I want to fight some jihad,” Batiste says on one tape.

A key piece of evidence is an FBI video of the entire group pledging an oath of allegiance, or “bayat” to al-Qaida and Osama bin Laden in a March 16 2006, ceremony led by an FBI informant posing as “Brother Mohammed” from al Qaida.

Testimony also showed the men took photographs and video of possible targets in Miami, including the FBI building, a court complex and a synagogue.

Defence lawyers claimed the case was an FBI set-up driven by informants who manipulated the group.

“This is a manufactured crime,” Batiste’s lawyer Ana Jhones said earlier in the trial.