Osama Bin Laden's Son-in-law Sentence To Life In Prison

Osama bin Laden's son-in-law has been sentenced to life in a US prison for plotting to kill Americans.
Sulaiman Abu Ghaith was convicted on terror-related charges in a New York court in March for serving as bin Laden's "principle messenger" following the September 11 attacks.

The 48-year-old Kuwaiti imam was tasked with creating recruitment videos for al Qaeda, warning in one that "the storm of planes" would not stop.

US District Judge Lewis Kaplan said in court on Tuesday that he saw "no remorse whatsoever" from Abu Ghaith.

"You continue to threaten," the judge said.

Police outside Manhattan court

Abu Ghaith was convicted in March in a New York court

"You sir, in my assessment, still want to do everything you can to carry out al Qaeda's agenda of killing Americans."

Abu Ghaith testified just blocks from Ground Zero that he was not a recruiter and that his role was strictly religious.

At his sentencing, he said through an interpreter that he "would not come here today and seek mercy from anyone but God".

"At the same moment you were shackling my hands and intending to bury me alive, you are at the same time unleashing the hands of hundreds of Muslim youths," Abu Ghaith said.

"They will join the ranks of the freemen soon and very soon the world will see the end of these theatre plays."

Abu Ghaith's attorneys sought a 15-year sentence, saying that his actions amounted to "offensive" speech - "not unlike an outrageous daytime shock-radio host".

This frame grab from the Saudi-owned television ne

Abu Ghaith married Osama bin Laden's eldest daughter five years ago

Prosecutors called him "a terrorist who sat alongside bin Laden on the morning of September 12, 2001, celebrating the murder of nearly 3,000 innocent men, women and children".

Abu Ghaith is the most senior al Qaeda figure to go on trial in the US.

Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the alleged mastermind of 9/11, was denied the right to testify on Abu Ghaith's behalf.

In a statement written at the request of Abu Ghaith's lawyers, Mohammed wrote that bin Laden's son-in-law did not play any military role in al Qaeda.

He said bin Laden put Abu Ghaith in charge for a time of al Qaeda's media operations, where workers did not know about specific terrorist plots.

Skynews