This story is free to read.

Bin Laden top aide sentenced to life in embassy bombing plot

FILE - In this Jan. 20, 2015, file courtroom sketch, Khaled al-Fawwaz, right, a defendant in the 1998 bombings of the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania that killed 224 people, is seated next to his defense attorney, Barbara O'Connor, during jury selection in Manhattan Federal Court. The aide to Osama bin Laden faces up to life in prison when he is sentenced after his conviction Friday, May 15. (AP Photo/Elizabeth Williams, File) FILE - In this Jan. 20, 2015, file courtroom sketch, Khaled al-Fawwaz, right, a defendant in the 1998 bombings of the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania that killed 224 people, is seated next to his defense attorney, Barbara O'Connor, during jury selection in Manhattan Federal Court. The aide to Osama bin Laden faces up to life in prison when he is sentenced after his conviction Friday, May 15. (AP Photo/Elizabeth Williams, File)

By Associated Press May 15, 2015 1 min read

NEW YORK (AP) – A former top aide to Osama bin Laden has been sentenced to life in prison for conspiring in the 1998 bombings of two U.S. embassies in Africa.

Federal Judge Lewis Kaplan sentenced Khaled al-Fawwaz (kah-LEED’ al-fah-WAHZ’) on Friday. He was convicted this year.

The attacks in Kenya and Tanzania killed 224 people, including a dozen Americans.

Al-Fawwaz’s lawyers had asked that he be sentenced to less than life in prison, saying he was less culpable than others.

But prosecutors say al-Fawwaz was an al-Qaida leader who helped bin Laden make sure his 1996 declaration of war against the U.S. reached the world. They say he also led a terrorist training camp and a terror cell.

The Saudi Arabia-born al-Fawwaz was extradited from Great Britain in 2012.