This courtroom sketch shows Khaled al-Fawwaz, right, in Jan. 2015 during jury selection for his conspiracy trial in the 1998 bombings of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania that killed 224 people.(Photo: Elizabeth Williams, AP)
NEW YORK – Terror suspect Khaled al-Fawwaz was convicted Thursday on conspiracy charges in the 1998 al-Qaeda bombings of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania that killed 224.
A Manhattan federal court jury found the Saudi defendant guilty of four conspiracy charges relating to the killing of U.S. nationals, murder, destroying American buildings and property and attacking national defense utilities.
The verdict came after less than three days of deliberations by the 12-member panel.
The 52-year-old defendant faces a maximum sentence of life in prison with the outcome of the trial that began on Jan. 22, according to Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara's office.
"As a unanimous jury has found, for nearly a decade, Khaled al-Fawwaz played a critical role for Al Qaeda in its murderous conspiracy against America," said Bharara. "We hope this verdict gives some comfort to Al Qaeda's victims around the world."
All 10 criminal defendants linked to the bombings in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam have now been convicted by trial or guilty plea in Manhattan federal court proceedings, prosecutors said. Co-defendant Abu Anas al-Libi died from cancer complications shortly before the trial of al-Fawwaz opened.
Prosecutors did not contend al-Fawwaz was directly involved in the embassy attacks. But they argued he was a trusted supporter of the late al-Qaeda mastermind Osama Bin Laden, and was implicated in the broader conspiracy surrounding the bombings.
He led a terror cell in Kenya and publicized Bin Laden's call to attack and kill Americans anywhere in the world, prosecutors charged.
Subsequently based in London, al-Fawwaz "served as bin Laden's bridge to the West in the pre-Internet era," disseminating the terror leader's statements and facilitating his media contacts, said Bharara
Bin Laden headed al-Qaeda at the time of the terror group's Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in New York City and Washington that killed nearly 3,000. He died in a 2011 attack U.S. Navy Seals led on his previously secret hideout in Abbottabad, Pakistan.
The defense team for al-Fawwaz conceded that he knew bin Laden. But they denied that he was an Al Qaeda operative and contended he was a peaceful man who had no role in the plot that led to the embassy bombings.
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