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Jury Selection Begins in US Embassy Bombing Case
More than two years after the bombings of two US embassies in East Africa, jury selection will begin on Wednesday in the trial of four men charged with conspiring with Saudi exile Osama bin Laden to carry out those attacks, The New York Times reported Wednesday.
The trial, which is expected to last about 10 months, is the first in the United States stemming from the bombings in Kenya and Tanzania on August 7, 1998, which killed 224 people and wounded more than 4,000 others.
The case is being tried in the Federal District Court in Manhattan because prosecutors in New York are actively investigating bin Laden for other alleged terrorist acts predating the embassy explosions, the newspaper said.
The jury selection begins amid heightened concerns about courtroom security, and as the government continues its aggressive campaign to bring bin Laden to the United States from Afghanistan, where he is believed to be protected by the ruling Taliban movement.
The jurors will be anonymous, meaning that their identities will be kept from the defendants and others in the courtroom.
All four defendants have pleaded not guilty. Two of them will face the death penalty if they are convicted.
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