Thaindian News

Washington, June 18 (IANS) The US has formally dropped criminal charges against former Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, CNN reported Friday.

The world’s most wanted terrorist Osama was killed in a US military raid in Pakistan May 2. His death ended a 10-year manhunt that intensified with the Sep 11, 2001 terror attack on the World Trade Centre in New York and the Pentagon.

Prosecutors in a Manhattan federal court Friday disposed of a 1998 indictment that charged bin Laden with murder and conspiracy to kill Americans for his role in attacking US embassies in East Africa in 1998. The indictment also alleged that bin Laden tried to attack US defence assets, the report stated.

The bombing of US embassies in Nairobi, Kenya, and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, had killed 224 people.

Preet Bharara, US Attorney for the Southern District of New York, asked for the change, a request that Justice Lewis Kaplan granted in a brief order.

The action came after a thorough analysis confirmed Osama’s death after US Navy SEALs raided his compound, according to an affidavit from a top US government official that was included in the filing.

The officials noted that facial recognition and photograph analysis confirmed the identity, along with DNA testing of the body.

“The possibility of a mistaken identification is approximately one in 11.8 quadrillion,” the official said.

The original indictment, filed in June 8, 1998, accused Osama of murder and conspiracy to kill US nationals, among other charges, after the cab bombings that year at the embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.