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| Alleged bin Laden Aide Testifies On Stabbing Prison Officer |
| By Associated Press |
| Published: 09/06/2002 |
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A purported adviser to Osama bin Laden testified that he stabbed a federal prison officer with a sharpened comb so he could steal the officer's keys and attack his lawyers. Mamdouh Mahmud Salim, 44, a native of Sudan, said he was infuriated with his court-appointed lawyers - who were in a nearby locked conference room - because they failed to carry out his assignments. He said he had asked a judge to remove them, but the judge refused. 'I lost every hope to change these lawyers. I only had one recourse, to attack them physically,' Salim told U.S. District Judge Deborah Batts. The testimony came Wednesday during a pre-sentencing hearing for Salim, allegedly a founding member of bin Laden's al-Qaida terrorist organization. He has pleaded guilty to conspiracy to murder and attempted murder in the November 2000 stabbing of officer Louis Pepe, who was left brain-damaged. At the time of the assault, Salim was in jail awaiting trial on other conspiracy charges in the attacks on two U.S. embassies in Africa in 1998. The bombings killed 224 people, including a dozen Americans. He has yet to be tried in the bombings. Salim's testimony conflicted with evidence introduced by prosecutors last week to show that he was plotting to escape from the Metropolitan Correctional Center in New York and take hostages. Salim denied that claim when questioned by his lawyer, Richard Lind. Lind was assigned to Salim's case after the stabbing; his previous attorneys were dismissed. Salim conceded that he had drawn landmarks on a newspaper outline of Manhattan found in his cell. 'The truth is, I thought of escaping from the MCC,' he said. 'And if I escaped I don't know where to go in America. I would go directly to the United Nations and say I was innocent.' If prosecutors prove the stabbing was related to terrorism, Salim could face life in prison. Otherwise, he could face 14 to 17 years. |
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