Al Liby pleads not guilty to terror charges

Alleged Libyan Al-Qaeda leader Abu Anas Al Liby appeared before a New York court Tuesday to be arraigned on long-standing charges related to the bombings of two U.S. embassies in Africa 15 years ago.

Wearing loose white sweatpants and a black sweatshirt, Al Liby had his hands cuffed behind his back as he appeared in the federal court in lower Manhattan. During the short hearing, the suspect pleaded not guilty.

Al Liby, whose real name is Nazih al-Ragye, is alleged to have played a role in the 1998 bombings of the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. Al-Qaeda claimed responsibility for the attacks, which, killed 224 civilians.

In 2001 a grand jury in New York indicted Al Liby and 21 other terrorism suspects, including Osama bin Laden.

Court documents allege that as early as 1993, Al Liby began planning attacks with other Al-Qaeda figures against the United States in response to U.S. military action in Somalia.

Al Liby was seized by a U.S. Army Delta Force squad on the streets of Tripoli, Libya, on Oct. 5 and taken to a Navy ship in the Mediterranean Sea. 

After his capture, the 49-year-old was interrogated for a week aboard the USS San Antonio and then turned over to the FBI to face federal terrorism charges in the U.S.

But as his health deteriorated, U.S. authorities decided to fly Al Liby to New York last weekend, where he was taken to a hospital for treatment. Al Liby's wife has said in media interviews that he suffers from hepatitis C, a viral disease that leads to swelling of the liver. 

A U.S. official familiar with the matter who asked for anonymity told Reuters that Al Liby stopped regularly eating and drinking on board the ship. 

Although Al Liby did not stage a full hunger strike, the official said, his health continued to deteriorate, and U.S. officials decided that shipboard medical facilities did not offer adequate care.

Upon arrival in the United States, Al Liby became subject to the rules of the civilian U.S. court system. That means he can no longer be interrogated without being advised of his constitutional right to avoid incriminating himself, the official told Reuters.

The official said that the original plan had been to keep Al Liby on the ship for weeks so the team deployed to capture him could extract as much intelligence as possible regarding what he knew about current and past Al-Qaeda plans, personnel and operations.

Al Jazeera and Reuters