Formally dropped criminal charges against bin Laden

The United States has formally dropped criminal charges against former al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, who was killed in a U.S. military raid in Pakistan last month, formally ending a case against the slain al-Qaida leader that began with hopes of seeing him brought to justice in a civilian court.

U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan approved a request made by federal prosecutors to dismiss the charges — a procedural move that's routine when defendants under indictment die.

In federal court in Manhattan on Friday, prosecutors disposed of a 1998 indictment that charged bin Laden with murder and conspiracy to kill Americans for his role in attacking U.S. embassies in East Africa in 1998. The indictment also alleged that bin Laden tried to attack U.S. defense assets.

The indictment was later revised to charge bin Laden in the dual bombings of two American embassies in East Africa that killed 224 on Aug. 7, 1998, and in the suicide attack on the USS Cole in 2000. None of the charges involved the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

Also named as a defendant was Ayman al-Zawahiri, the Egyptian eye doctor and longtime bin Laden deputy who has become al-Qaida's new leader.

Typically, court indictments are dismissed when the defendant dies or is convicted on other unrelated cases. Such requests to drop charges are procedural and routine. Pending federal criminal indictments remain against other top al Qaeda officials and their associates.

The charges included conspiracy to kill U.S. nationals, conspiracy to use weapons of mass destruction against U.S. nationals and conspiracy to damage and destroy U.S. property.

Around the time the charges were first filed, the CIA's bin Laden unit was pursuing a plan to use Afghan operatives to capture bin Laden and hand him over for trial either in the United States or in an Arab country, according to the 9/11 Commission. Bin Laden evaded capture for more than a decade until May 2, when he was killed during a Navy SEALs raid of his compound in Pakistan.

The court papers filed Friday included a declaration by a Justice Department official detailing the DNA, facial recognition and other evidence confirming bin Laden's identity.

"The possibility of a mistaken identification is approximately one in 11.8 quadrillion," the official wrote.

The document also makes a passing reference to a "significant quantity" of terrorist network material recovered during the raid, including "correspondence between Osama bin Laden and other senior al-Qaida leaders that concerns a range of al-Qaida issues."