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Jury Begins Deliberations In Embassy Trial
NEW YORK, May 10 (News Agencies) - Jurors began deliberations Thursday in the trial of four men accused in connection with the 1998 bombings of two U.S. embassies in East Africa.
The 12 members of the jury withdrew shortly before 4:00 pm (2000 GMT) and were expected to spend approximately one hour in deliberations, after Judge Leonard Sand read them final instructions. They will reconvene Friday.
The jury must respond to a total of 302 questions discerning the guilt or innocence of each of the four defendants.
Lawyers and observers said a verdict was likely early next week.
The fate of Saudi national Mohamed Rashid Daoud al-Owhali, 23, and Tanzanian Khalfan Khamis Mohamed, 27, who could face the death penalty on charges of actively taking part in the bombings, rests with the same jurors.
After the verdict is released, a new phase of the trial begins in which new evidence and witnesses, including defendants' family members, may be put forward to decide sentencing.
Lebanese American Wadih el Hage, 40, and Jordanian Mohamed Saddiq Odeh, 35 are accused of playing indirect roles in the bombings.
If convicted they face a maximum sentence of life imprisonment.
Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald, in his final statements to the jury Wednesday, repeated his litany of charges against the four suspects, believed to be members of al-Qaeda, Saudi billionaire Osama bin Laden's group.
Bin Laden, believed to be in hiding in Afghanistan under the protection of the Taliban militia, is one of 14 people charged in the bombings who remain at large. A $5 million reward for his capture has gone unclaimed.
One man suspected in the plot has pleaded guilty. Three others are in Britain awaiting extradition to the United States.
A total of 224 people were killed, 12 of them U.S. citizens, in near-simultaneous explosions in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam on August 7, 1998.
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