Judge allows Sept. 11-related trial to begin Monday as planned

WASHINGTON -- A federal judge Friday refused to halt or dismiss the case against Osama bin Laden’s son-in-law, saying that suggestions the government had charged the wrong man were “utterly meritless” and ruling that the first Sept. 11-related trial to be held in New York will open with jury selection on Monday.

Defense lawyers for Sulaiman abu Ghaith had filed a last-minute request for a delay in the trial or dismissal of the case altogether, claiming they had uncovered evidence that another man, a detainee at Guantanamo Bay, is the actual person who was the top Al Qaeda propagandist and warned of more airplane attacks.

But prosecutors in a memo filed Friday morning told Judge Lewis A. Kaplan that they had a secret “cooperating witness” who was with Abu Ghaith during and after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, and that their witness also identified the defendant from videos of his threats of more terrorist strikes.

As yet unidentified, the witness was to testify from England via a secure closed-circuit feed, and his testimony is considered a large part of the government’s effort to win a life sentence with no parole for Abu Ghaith.

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