Osama’s son-in-law loses battle to wiggle out of life sentence

Osama bin Laden’s son-in-law — the highest-ranking al Qaeda figure to face trial on US soil since 9/11 — will not be wiggling out of his life prison sentence, an appeals court ruled on Thursday.

The 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the conviction of Sulaiman Abu Ghaith, a Kuwaiti-born cleric who was captured in Jordan last year and brought to the US to face charges of conspiracy to kill Americans and aiding al Qaeda.

Abu Ghaith, 51, challenged the conviction on lack-of-evidence grounds. But a Manhattan federal appeals court called the evidence against him “overwhelming.”

“Taking the evidence in the light most favorable to the government, the proof of this knowledge is overwhelming,” the three-judge panel ruled.

“He participated in the conspiracy by delivering speeches with bin Laden, including on the day after the September 11 attacks and in advance of the shoe-bomb plot,” the judges said.