Blink sheikh Omar Abdel Rahman, who was sentenced to life in prison for plotting the deadly 1993 World Trade Center attacks, has died in prison, authorities have said.
The Egyptian cleric died at a South Carolina prison hospital, senior law enforcement officials told NBC New York.
Rahman was one of six suspects convicted of participating in the 1993 bombing, which left six people dead and more than 1,000 injured.
He also plotted attacks on other landmarks in New York City, including the Lincoln and Holland Tunnels, the United Nations headquarters and the George Washington Bridge.
His son Anmar confirmed to Reuters that a US representative had called his family to tell them Rahman had died.
The sheik gave a 100-minute statement during his sentencing hearing in 1996, launching into a declaration of war as he was ordered to spend the rest of his life behind bars.
‘The prosecution wants that we should kneel and be subservient to America and obey America, but we do not kneel to anyone, except to God,’ he said according to a New York Daily News story published at the time.
‘America will go and be withered and this civilization will be destroyed. Nothing will remain. We will not kneel.’
Judge Michael Mukasey, who handed Rahman his sentence, said the additional attacks plotted by the cleric would have made the World Trade Center bombing look minor.
You were convicted of ordering others to perform acts which, if accomplished, would have resulted in the murder of hundreds if not thousands of people and brought about devastation on a scale that beggars the imagination, certainly on a scale that is unknown in this country since the Civil War, if ever,’ Mukasey said.
During the February 26, 1993 attack, perpetrators placed a 1,200-pound bomb in a rental Ryder van that was parked in an underground garage beneath the World Trade Center.
The blow destroyed the ceiling of the location’s PATH station, causing it to collapse. About 50,000 had to be evacuated from the complex.
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