Sheik Pleads Innocent To Leading Terrorism

August 27, 1993|By Lisa Anderson, Tribune Staff Writer.

NEW YORK — In a courthouse bristling with security, radical Muslim Sheik Omar Abdel-Rahman pleaded innocent Thursday to charges that he commanded a "war of urban terrorism" in the U.S.

His 14 co-defendants also pleaded innocent to a conspiracy of bombings, kidnappings and assassinations, which allegedly included the bombing of the World Trade Center, a plot to bomb New York tunnels and buildings, the 1990 assassination of radical Rabbi Meir Kahane and a plan to assassinate Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.

The pleas, entered at an arraignment in federal court, came on the six-month anniversary of the Feb. 26 Trade Center bombing, which killed six people and injured more than 1,000.

Abdel-Rahman, who has been detained on immigration charges in a New York prison since July 2, sat silently with his head bowed during the proceedings.

The blind, 55-year-old Egyptian cleric is not charged with any specific act, but rather with leading a conspiracy to commit those acts under a broad but rarely used sedition statute.

Among the defendants who filed into the courtroom was El Sayyid Nosair, 37, who has been charged under a federal racketeering statute with the murder of Kahane. Nosair, who was acquitted of the murder in a state trial, currently is serving a sentence on a related weapons conviction at Attica Prison in western New York.

Eleven of the 15 defendants previously had been charged with the alleged plot in June to bomb Hudson River crossings, the UN building and FBI headquarters in Manhattan. None of them previously had been charged in connection with the Trade Center bombing.

The unusually high level of courthouse security, which included additional metal detectors and package searches, clearly reflected officials' fears that Abdel-Rahman's indictment could spark a violent reaction among his followers.

In Egypt, followers of the cleric vowed Thursday to retaliate against any perceived mistreatment of him.

"We will take revenge on all U.S. interests and citizens, either in Egypt or outside, if any harm occurs to the Sheik Omar," said a statement issued by three radical Muslim Egyptian groups, the Islamic Group, the Vanguards of Conquest and the Jihad, or Holy War.

Abdel-Rahman is considered the spiritual leader of the Islamic Group, an umbrella organization of radical fundamentalist factions.