Two more suspects in the World Trade Center bombing-including one who may be the most important figure yet apprehended-were charged in federal district court Thursday, bringing to five the number arrested in the attack on the world’s second tallest building.
FBI agents, some of whom have characterized Mahmud Abohalima as “the key guy” in the conspiracy, are seeking a sixth suspect whose name, contained in a sealed indictment, has not been released.
Abohalima, 33, an Egyptian-born former New York limousine driver, was arrested in Egypt on March 14 and turned over to U.S. authorities early Wednesday.
Another suspect, Bilal Alkaisi, 27, a New York City cabdriver, was arrested early Thursday by FBI agents. Alkaisi, reportedly born in Jordan, had voluntarily appeared for questioning several hours earlier at the FBI’s office in Newark.
Alkaisi initially was linked to the bombing when his American Express card was found in the possession of another suspect, according to a criminal complaint. A witness also claims to have spotted him at a storage shed where suspected bomb ingredients were kept.
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Suspected ringleader Abohalima cuts a figure in sharp contrast to his alleged co-conspirators. While they are short men, filing through courtrooms in prison togs, Abohalima towers over them at 6 feet 2.
Unusual for Arab men, Abohalima’s close-cropped hair is fiery red and his skin is freckled. His powerful weightlifter’s frame was nattily clad Thursday in a tailored olive-green suit. He sat subdued and silent, coughing occasionally, while the indictment against him was read.
Separately, three suspects indicted earlier and held without bail entered pleas of innocent at their arraignment Thursday. They include Mohammed Salameh, the man who rented the van allegedly used in the bombing. He defiantly shouted his innocence. Nidal Ayyad, a chemical engineer, swore the same on “the Koran, my wife, child and mother.”
An FBI complaint linked Alkaisi to Ayyad, and said a search at Ayyad’s home in Maplewood, N.J., turned up a time-delay firing device for explosives “consistent with timing mechanisms used in other terrorist bombs.”
Ibrahim Elgabrowny, 42, also a suspect, answered “not guilty” to a charge of obstructing justice for allegedly hitting two federal agents.
But it is Abohalima who has been characterized by the FBI as the key figure plotting the Feb. 26 blast that killed six and injured more than 1,000. Investigators say he was seen riding with Salameh in the rented van allegedly used to plant the bomb in the World Trade Center.
The FBI says he fled the country soon after the arrest of Salameh on March 4; investigators initially indicated he left on a flight to South Africa but now refuse to confirm or deny this.
Abohalima’s attorney said his client left on a direct flight to Saudi Arabia, for a planned pilgrimage to Mecca, followed by a visit to his family in Egypt.
The attorney, Jesse Berman, said Abohalima was tortured and beaten after authorities picked him up at his family’s home in Egypt.
At the hearing, Berman asserted that his client was too “exhausted, confused and disoriented” to comprehend the charges against him.
“For 10 days, he was kept naked in a cold cell, blindfolded,” Berman told reporters, describing Abohalima’s detention in Egypt.
“He said he was hanged, horizontally, from a board, `like a shish-kabob.’ They beat him with sticks and metal pipes and they burned him around the genitals with cigarettes.”
Berman said because Abohalima was blindfolded, he could not identify his interrogators, saying “they could have been anybody . . . Egyptian police or CIA or FBI operatives.”
A doctor retained by the FBI examined Abohalima shortly after he arrived in the U.S., because the suspect asked for medical treatment, a prosecutor said. FBI officials declined to answer questions about the examination.
James Fox, head of the FBI’s New York office, said Egyptian authorities voluntarily turned over Abohalima. Federal authorities were assisted in gaining custody of Abohalima by “several foreign governments,” which Fox would not identify.
Abohalima’s brother, Mohammed, was in court Thursday to watch the proceeding and said he was glad his brother was out of Egypt. The suspect, Mohammed said, would be treated more humanely in the U.S.