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Day 6 of jury selection concludes in embassy bombings trial

From CNN Producer Phil Hirschkorn

CASE FILE Shattered Diplomacy: The U.S. Embassy Bombings Trial An in-depth special report on the trial of four men charged with the embassy bombings Trial reports | Timeline | Key Figures

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NEW YORK (CNN) -- In the shortest day of jury selection yet, a federal court chose five more people Wednesday to enter the final jury pool in the trial stemming from the 1998 bombings of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.

The court also interviewed and excused seven potential jurors.

Court will reconvene Thursday with 46 potential jurors. A pool of 80 jurors will go through a second round of jury selection, or voir dire, to create a 12-person jury with six alternates.

The court is questioning a pool of 1,300 prospective jurors in one-on-one sessions closed to the public. The prospective jurors provided written answers to more than 90 questions in surveys returned to the court last month.

The four men standing trial are accused of participating in a worldwide conspiracy to kill U.S. citizens and destroy U.S. government property. The alleged conspiracy included the two embassy bombings, which killed 224 people and injured more than 4,000.

Federal prosecutors allege the conspiracy was led by wealthy Saudi fugitive Osama bin Laden, one of 13 indicted fugitives not being tried in the case. Five more defendants, not on trial, are in U.S. or British custody.

The four defendants standing trial are alleged Kenya embassy bomber Mohamed Al-' Owhali, 23, a Saudi national; alleged Tanzania embassy bomber Khalfan Mohamed, 27, a Tanzanian; alleged Kenya embassy bomber Mohamad Odeh, 35, of Jordan; and the alleged former personal secretary to bin Laden, Wadih el Hage, 40, a naturalized American.

The trial is taking place in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. It is expected to last approximately nine months.

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Links to United States Embassies and Consulates Worldwide
Patterns of Global Terrorism: 1999
FBI Websites Document Evidence Against Bin Laden
Dept of State/International Information Programs:
Ussamah Bin Laden
US District Court, Southern District of New York
U.S. State Department - Counterterrorism
Terrorism Research Center
Africa News on the World Wide Web

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