WASHINGTON — In a rare and shocking development, an accused foreign Islamic terrorist was found not guilty Friday by a jury in federal court after a trial on charges he conspired with Osama bin Laden to conduct a suicide bombing on Americans in Europe two decades ago, his lawyer said.
Nizar Trabelsi, a former Tunisian professional soccer star, was extradited to the United States in 2013 to face the charges. The indictment alleged that he personally met in the spring of 2001 with bin Laden to volunteer for a suicide bomb attack against U.S. interests.
Preparations unfolded over the next several months, according to the indictment, with Trabelsi allegedly obtaining chemicals in Europe and subsequently joining others to scout a potential target: a military facility that was used by the United States and the United States Air Force.
According to the indictment, Trabelsi was living in Germany in 2000, when he met with other conspirators and made preparations to travel to Afghanistan to train for jihad.
In the spring of 2001, the indictment alleges, he met with bin Laden in Afghanistan and offered to carry out a suicide bomb attack. The indictment says he later spoke with Muhammed Atef, a high-ranking member and chief military planner of al Qaeda, at bin Laden’s direction. The indictment says he met with others with whom he was to form a cell for the purpose of carrying out a suicide attack.
Trabelsi and other conspirators allegedly discussed various possible targets for a suicide bomb attack, and he undertook training in how to place explosives. In June 2001, the indictment states, Trabelsi traveled to Pakistan, where he obtained money from an al Qaeda associate for use in carrying out his mission. The following month, he rented an apartment in Brussels. While in Belgium, Trabelsi bought quantities of chemicals to be used in manufacturing a 1,000-kilogram bomb, the indictment alleges. He then traveled at night with conspirators to scout the military base, the indictment says.
During the trial, his lawyers argued that he was an innocent bystander caught up in the excesses of American reaction after the 9/11 attacks. Attorney Sabrina Shroff had insisted that Trabelsi “is not a terrorist, and we expect the evidence to show exactly that,” according to Courthouse News Service.
She argued that a confession he made to Belgian authorities on which the U.S. charges were based was false.
“We all agree that he was born in Tunisia, he is a good soccer player, and he is an incessant talker who made statement after statement after statement to Belgian authorities,” Shroff said in her opening statement. “Most of his statements, if not all, could not be objectively corroborated.”
Trabelsi was convicted in Belgium in 2003 for planning to attack the Kleine-Brogel Air Base, where U.S. military staff are stationed. He served a 10-year sentence before Belgium extradited him to the U.S., despite the European Court of Human Rights ruling that he should not be sent across the Atlantic.
In an interview with NBC News after the verdict, Shroff said the jury’s “patience in going through the evidence led them to see what has been blatantly obvious to Mr. Trabelsi’s lawyers — that law enforcement in Belgium took advantage of Mr. Trabelsi's vulnerabilities and wrongly extradited to the United States an innocent man.”
A Justice Department official told NBC News on Friday that for now Trabelsi will be in the custody of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The official declined further comment.
