Mobile UPI  |   About UPI  |   UPI en Español  |   UPI Arabic  |   UPIU  |   My Account
Search:
Go

Arab-U.S. student convicted of terror plot

|
|
 
  
Published: Nov. 22, 2005 at 6:46 PM

ALEXANDRIA, Va., Nov. 22 (UPI) -- An Arab-American student has been convicted of conspiring with Al-Qaida to assassinate President Bush and hijack airplanes.

Ahmed Omar Abu Ali could face life in prison when he is sentenced. A jury in federal court in Virginia rejected his claims that he gave a false confession after being tortured in Saudi Arabia.

The verdict is a victory for the Justice Department in its quest to use intelligence from foreign sources in U.S. trials, the New York Times said.

Abu Ali, who was born in the United States and grew up in Virginia, was studying in Medina when he was arrested in 2003. The Justice Department charged he went to Saudi Arabia planning to become a terrorist, while defense lawyers said he was only interested in pursuing religious studies.

While the government, before the trial, called Abu Ali "one of the most dangerous terrorist threats that America faces in the perilous world after Sept. 11, 2001," his lawyers suggested if he is one of the most dangerous threats to the United States the country is extremely lucky.

Topics: Abu Ali, Ahmed Omar Abu Ali
© 2005 United Press International, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Any reproduction, republication, redistribution and/or modification of any UPI content is expressly prohibited without UPI's prior written consent.

Order reprints
  
Join the conversation
Most Popular Collections
Notable deaths of 2012 Scripps National Spelling Bee AmfAR Cinema Against AIDS gala
Indianapolis 500 Presidential Medal of Freedom Memorial Day around the nation
Additional Top News Stories
1 of 27
Snigdha Nandipati of San Diego wins Finals of the Scripps National Spelling Bee
View Caption
Snigdha Nandipati of San Diego, California watches confetti rain down as she wins the two-day Scripps National Spelling Bee championship, May 31, 2012, in National Harbor, Maryland. Nandipati successfully spelled the word .* guetapens *, meaning to lure or ambush. UPI/Mike Theiler
fark
I'll see your zombie apocalypse, and raise you "swarms of deadly spiders" invading a town in India...
Photoshop this woman at the wheel
New book is full of girls in their bedrooms, will be read by people who need to have a seat right...
★☆☆☆☆ Michigan is an uninhabitable swamp. Do not settle
As part of the Queen's jubilee celebrations, Top Gear presenter James May has built a contraption...
New, comprehensive data on all the reasons why people break-up. Bad news for Farkers: drinking too...