Nosair, El Sayyid (1956–)

El Sayyid Nosair is serving a life sentence in prison for participating in a conspiracy that involved, in part, the February 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center in New York City; six people were killed and 1,000 more injured. Nosair has also been found guilty of the 1990 murder of militant Zionist Rabbi Meir Kahane.

Like his spiritual leader Omar Abdel Rahman, Nosair was not actually charged with the 1993 blast; he was instead convicted on racketeering charges—tried for carrying out a “holy war” against the United States. Prosecutors claimed that the 1993 bombing and the earlier assassination of Kahane were two acts in the larger conspiracy.

Born in Egypt, Nosair immigrated to the United States and found a job as a maintenance worker in Jersey City, New Jersey. He attended the Jersey City mosque of Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman, spiritual leader of the Egyptian Islamic militant group Gama'a al-Islamiyya.

According to prosecutors, on November 5, 1990, Nosair attended a speech given by Kahane in the Marriott Hotel ballroom. As Kahane finished his speech, Nosair shot him and dashed from the hotel, firing all the while. He ran into the street and shot an older man and a postal police officer. The officer fired back, hitting Nosair in the neck. Soon arrested, Nosair denied involvement in the killing. According to press reports, after Nosair's arrest federal agents raided his apartment and found many incriminating items, including a Rahman sermon that urged his followers to attack “the edifices of capitalism.”

At his first trial, Nosair was acquitted of state murder charges but convicted of related gun-possession and assault charges; he was sentenced to seven years in Attica Prison for the related gun offense. While in Attica, according to prosecutors, Nosair encouraged visitors to continue with the holy war against the United States, and even called on his supporters to assassinate the judge who sent him to prison.

After the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center, investigators found that many of the major suspects in the case had closely watched Nosair's trial and contributed money for his defense. Prosecutors carefully constructed a huge terrorism and conspiracy case involving Rahman, Nosair, and other supporters. The indictment tied together a three-year string of terrorist incidents, including an alleged plot to blow up the George Washington Bridge, the Lincoln and Holland Tunnels, the United Nations building, and other Manhattan landmarks.

In the larger conspiracy trial, prosecutors brought up Nosair's involvement in Kahane's murder, maintaining [Page 262]that it was part of Rahman's conspiracy to undermine the U.S. government. In this second trial, Nosair was convicted of Kahane's murder. Nosair's cousin, Ibrahim el-Gabrowny, was also convicted of taking part in the conspiracy.

The issue of double jeopardy was not pertinent to Nosair's second trial because he was charged with the new crime of federal racketeering—prosecutors proved that he took part in a broader conspiracy against the United States.