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Al Qaeda suspect dies before trial

January 3, 2015

A Libyan man suspected of plotting al Qaeda's 1998 bombings of US embassies in Africa has died days before he was to stand trial. Abu Anas al Libi had been ailing from advanced liver cancer.

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Abu Anas al Libi
Image: picture-alliance/dpa

Al Libi, who was captured by US troops in a raid in the Libyan capital, Tripoli, in 2013, died in a New York hospital on Friday after his condition deteriorated, his lawyer Bernard Kleinman said.

The computer expert, also known as Nazih Abdul-Hamed al-Ruqai, was scheduled to go on trial in New York on January 12 to face a charge of conspiracy to commit murder.

He was indicted by a US court in 2000 for taking part in the al Qaeda-led bombings of US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998, which killed 224 people and wounded more than 5,000.

Previous to his arrest, Libi had been on the FBI'S most wanted list for more than 10 years, with the US offering a $5 million (4.2 million euro) bounty for his recapture.

Following his death, Al Libi's wife, Um Abdullah, told the Associated Press news agency on Saturday that her husband's experience had worsened his illness.

"I accuse the American government of kidnapping, mistreating, and killing an innocent man. He did nothing," Abullah said.

ksb/tj (AFP, AP, dpa)