El Sayyid Nosair
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| El Sayyid Nosair | |
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| Born | November 16, 1955  Egypt |
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El Sayyid Nosair (born November 16, 1955) is an Egyptian-born American citizen and terrorist, allegedly involved in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing.
In 1994, Nosair was convicted of nine counts, including seditious conspiracy, murder in aid of racketeering, attempted murder in aid of racketeering, attempted murder of a postal police officer, use of a firearm in the commission of a murder, use of a firearm during an attempted murder, and possession of a firearm.
He was also charged by the State of New York as the gunman who killed Rabbi Meir Kahane, the controversial leader of the Jewish Defense League and the founder of the political party Kach, in Manhattan in 1990. Nosair was acquitted of the murder by the jury; he was, however, convicted for assault and possession of an illegal firearm. The judge in the trial, Justice Alvin Schlesinger, said that the jury's acquittal of Nosair on the murder charge "was against the overwhelming weight of evidence and was devoid of common sense and logic."[1] The judge added that "I believe the defendant conducted a rape of this country, of our Constitution and of our laws, and of people seeking to exist peacefully together."[2]
[edit] Terror conspiracy conviction
Nosair was still serving time in prison on the assault and weapons charges[citation needed] when he was convicted as part of the trial of the "Blind Sheik" Omar Abdel-Rahman. Both received life sentences for a Terror conspiracy, in Nosair's case life plus 15 years imprisonment. [3] It was ruled that Kahane's death was part of the total "seditious conspiracy," so Nosair was also convicted of killing Kahane. [4] He is serving his sentence in ADX Florence, the Federal ADX Supermax prison in Florence, Colorado.
"The government also claimed the February 1993 World Trade Center bombing, which killed six people, was part of the ongoing conspiracy but prosecutors offered no clear evidence that any of the 10 defendants in this trial played a part in that bombing."[5]
