Terror suspect Abu Anas al-Libi has died from health complications while awaiting trial in New York on charges he helped plot the 1998 bombings of the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, according to court filings made Saturday.
The Manhattan U.S. Attorney's office notified the trial judge overnight that al-Libi, 50, had died after being moved from the Metropolitan Correctional Center in lower Manhattan to a nearby hospital.
Al-Libi, who said his full name was Nazih Abdul-Hamed al-Ruqai, was believed to have been a onetime associate of Osama bin Laden. His family had said the terror suspect had been in bad condition, suffering liver disease as a result of hepatitis C.
Prosecutors wrote Judge Lewis Kaplan that "despite the care provided at the hospital, his condition deteriorated rapidly, and al Libi passed away yesterday evening," according to the court filing.
In October 2013, U.S. special operations forces, along with FBI and CIA agents, helped capture al-Libi and send him to New York for trial. Al-Libi had had a $5 million reward out for his arrest. Prior to his capture, he was on the FBI's list of most wanted terrorists.
Lawyers for al-Libi had asked Kaplan to dismiss the charges because of al-Libi's "forcible abduction" and the "inhumane treatment" of al-Libi while he was interrogated aboard a U.S. Navy ship, but Kaplan upheld the charges. Visibly ill in court even then, he pleaded not guilty to the charges through a lawyer.
More than 4,500 people were injured and more than 200 died in the truck bomb attack on the U.S. Embassy in Nairobi, including 12 Americans. In Dar es Salaam, 10 Tanzanians who worked at the embassy died. Al-Libi was charged in New York with having played a major role in organizing and conducting surveillance for the bombing operation.
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His attorney, Bernard Kleinman, had recently said his client's health was deteriorating. Kleinman did not immediately return a call for comment Saturday morning about al-Libi's death.
Prosecutors said al-Libi's lawyer and an imam were at his hospital bedside when he died.
A spokesman for U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara declined comment. An FBI spokesman did not immediately return a request for comment.
In their letter to the judge, prosecutors said they will soon formally file paperwork to end this case since al-Libi is dead.
Six other al Qaida operatives have already been convicted in New York. Osama bin Laden himself was also charged in the embassy bombings case until he was killed in a raid in Pakistan by U.S. forces.
