Accused Bin Laden aide jailed in US for stabbing

4.00pm

NEW YORK - An accused former top aide to Osama bin Laden was sentenced on Monday to 32 years in prison for stabbing a guard through the eye with a sharpened comb while awaiting trial for conspiring with al Qaeda to kill Americans.

In an emotionally charged sentencing hearing, Mamdouh Mahmud Salim was confronted by his victim, who was left brain damaged and partially paralysed and blinded.

"How about me? Look at me. Every day it hurts," shouted the prison guard, Louis Pepe, as he pointed at Salim from his wheelchair. "You, you were no good. It's dead, it's all gone. There's nothing there," he said, using his hand to cover the empty socket where his left eye had been.

Salim, 47, whom prosecutors say is the highest-ranking member of bin Laden's al Qaeda network to face trial in the United States, pleaded guilty in 2002 to attempted murder and conspiracy to murder a federal official. Prosecutors said the stabbing was part of a plan to free other al Qaeda members, take hostages and attack defence lawyers in the prison that day.

The Sudanese national kept his head bowed and cupped in his hands as the victim, who has difficulty remembering words, used sounds and gestures to describe the assault.

During the attack, Salim and another inmate sprayed Pepe's face with hot sauce, forced him to the ground and plunged the comb into his eye until it pierced his brain.

"They hit me so many times," Pepe said, adding that they also tried to rape him.

When Salim's lawyer asked for leniency, Pepe repeatedly shouted out objections, prompting US District Judge Deborah Batts to order him wheeled outside.

When Batts asked Salim if he wanted to speak before being sentenced, he told a translator he did not know what to say as there was no way to apologize for taking a man's eye.

"What happened was wrong and I accept responsibility," he said. However, Salim objected to Pepe's account of the attempted rape and said he had never "touched" a man or woman.

In addition to the prison term, Batts also ordered Salim to pay more than US$4.7 million ($7.61 million) in restitution if any hidden assets were found.

Prosecutors say Salim, trained as an engineer in Iraq, was a founder of al Qaeda who issued religious decrees for bin Laden and operated training camps and safe houses in Pakistan and Afghanistan.

The assault on Pepe occurred in 2000 while Salim and four others were awaiting trial for planning attacks on Americans including the August 1998 bombings of the US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.

Salim's case was separated after the stabbing. His four co-defendants were convicted in May 2001 and sentenced to life terms without parole.

The terrorism charges against Salim are still pending.

- REUTERS

Terrorism (includes bioterrorism, cyanide scares, bombings, etc.)