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Algerian Convicted in Millennium Bomb Plot
April 6, 2001 11:26 pm EST

By Dan Whitcomb

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - An Algerian with alleged ties to shadowy Saudi dissident Osama bin Laden was convicted on Friday of taking part in a thwarted plot to bomb U.S. millennium celebrations by a jury that deliberated for less than two days.

Ahmed Ressam, 33, stood with his fists clenched at his side and stared down, listening intently through headphones to a translation as the verdicts by an eight-woman, four-man jury were read in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles.

In finding Ressam guilty of all nine counts against him, jurors rejected the Algerian's claims that he was merely a dupe in the plot to plant bombs at the site of millennium celebrations that ended with his arrest.

Ressam, who was convicted of conspiracy to commit terrorism, document fraud and possession of deadly explosives after the 15-day trial, faces a possible sentence of 130 years in prison when he is sentenced later this year.

A defense lawyer said Ressam would appeal the convictions.

Assistant U.S. Francis Diskin said prosecutors were "very pleased" with the verdict.

Ressam was arrested on Dec. 14, 1999 in Washington state trying to enter the United States from Canada with 130 pounds (60 kg) of explosives and four timing devices, enough to make at least four high-powered bombs, hidden in his rental car.

Though former president Bill Clinton last May linked the plot to bin Laden, U.S. District Judge John Coughenour barred prosecutors from mentioning the Saudi dissident's name during Ressam's trial.

CONVICTED TWICE IN ONE DAY

It was Ressam's second criminal conviction in a single day. A French court earlier found him guilty in absentia of belonging to an Islamic terrorist organization and sentenced him to five years in prison.

Ressam is also wanted by authorities in Canada, who charge him with assembling bomb-making materials in a Vancouver motel. In closing arguments, prosecutors said Ressam was knowingly involved in an intricate plot to bomb one or more U.S. sites during millennium celebrations.

"A terrorist attack on the United States of America was stopped in its tracks," Assistant U.S. Attorney Andrew Hamilton said, referring to the day customs officials arrested Ressam as he drove off a ferry from British Columbia.

Authorities said it was unclear whether the bombs were intended for four different targets or whether they were intended to be set off in rapid succession in or around the same target.

Public millennium celebrations in Seattle were canceled as a precaution after police found that Ressam had reserved a motel room near the city's landmark Space Needle.

Ressam's trial was moved from Seattle to Los Angeles by Coughenour, who feared that pretrial publicity would make a fair trial more difficult to achieve.

Jurors told Coughenour that they would not speak to reporters after rendering the verdict and officials ushered out of the courtroom by a back entrance.

'INNUENDO, SPECULATION AND SENSATIONALISM'

Defense attorneys did not dispute accusations that Ressam carried explosives and fake identification. But they said evidence presented by prosecutors linking him to a terrorist conspiracy was inconclusive, calling it "innuendo, speculation and sensationalism."

"This is .... not a smooth planned-out operator," defense attorney Jo Ann Oliver told jurors, suggesting that Ressam's actions were masterminded by an accomplice, Abdelmajid Dahoumane, who was recently arrested in Algeria.

"When Mr. Dahoumane is no longer shadowing him, he's not able to do anything right," she said, noting that Ressam's English skills are poor.

Ressam's capture led to the arrests of two alleged co-conspirators besides Dahoumane, in Montreal and New York. One of the arrested men, an Algerian who agreed to testify in exchange for leniency, became a key witness in Ressam's trial. Another star witness was a French official who has been working to link Ressam with a terrorist network headed by Saudi dissident Osama bin Laden. Both men had their testimony restricted by U.S. District Judge John Coughenour.

Along with Ressam on Friday the French court sentenced suspected terrorist Fateh Kamel to eight years in French prison for organizing a network of safe houses and false identity papers for Islamic rebels in Europe and Canada and planning terrorist attacks in France in 1996.

-- Anonymous, April 07, 2001

Answers

A defense lawyer said Ressam would appeal the convictions.

Just an observation and question, but it seems as though every time I read about a court case, SOMEBODY will appeal the decision. Does anyone NOT appeal these days?

-- Anonymous, April 07, 2001

Those without money tend not to appeal. Whether that has something to do with the Lawyers involved is an interesting question and Texas is about ready to install a system to defend such people i.e. a Public Defenders system.

-- Anonymous, April 07, 2001