NEW YORK (AP) — Lawyers are poised to make opening statements in the trial of an Egyptian Islamic preacher charged with conspiring to support al-Qaida in part by trying to open a training camp in Oregon.
Mustafa Kamel Mustafa (muh-STAH’-fuh kah-MEHL’ muh-STAH’-fuh) expects to testify to rebut government’s claims that he was a vital piece of the terrorism machinery before his 2004 arrest. Opening statements begin Thursday.
His testimony will occur after the government tries to prove he tried to set up an al-Qaida training camp in Bly, Ore., in late 1999 and early 2000. He’s also charged with helping kidnappers in Yemen use satellite phones in a 1998 attack that killed four people, and arranging for fighters to attend an Afghanistan al-Qaida training camp.
The 55-year-old cleric was extradited from England in 2012.
