Abu Anas al-Libi, a man accused by federal prosecutors of being an al-Qaeda member involved in the 1998 bombings of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, died of complication from liver surgery, his wife said on Saturday. He was 50.
U.S. forces raided Libya in 2013 and seized him in the streets of Tripoli, bringing him back to America to stand trial in New York. On Saturday, his wife, Um Abdullah, told The Associated Press that the experience only worsened his ailments, including hepatitis C, leading to his death.
“I accuse the American government of kidnapping, mistreating, and killing an innocent man. He did nothing,” Ms. Abullah said.
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Al-Libi was indicted more than a decade ago in U.S. federal court of being involved in the twin 1998 bombings at the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania that killed 224 people, including a dozen Americans.
Ms. Abullah said her husband underwent liver surgery three weeks ago, went into a coma and was moved prematurely back to prison where he suffered complications.
“His voice was weak and he was in a bad condition,” she said. “It seems they didn’t keep him for enough time in hospital.”
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On Friday, she said a lawyer told her that al-Libi returned to hospital where he was placed on a ventilator, and “he was dying then.”