Algerian guilty of LA bomb plot

Mokhtar Haouari was arrested in January 2000

By Martin Turner in Washington

A federal jury in New York has found an Algerian national guilty of plotting to bomb Los Angeles International Airport in the run-up to the millennium celebrations.

The court was told that Mokhtar Haouari had planned to explode the bomb at the height of the holiday season, as part of a holy war against the United States.

The jury took barely two days to find Haouari guilty of playing a key role in the failed bombing plot.

Haouari was convicted of conspiring to provide false documents as well as money to buy explosives for the attack.

Carload of explosives

The court heard that Haouari had obtained false identification for another Algerian, who was arrested as he tried to smuggle a carload of explosives into the United States from Canada.

The prosecution's case largely depended on the testimony of two of Haouari's co-conspirators. They have already been convicted for their part in the plot, and defence lawyers condemned the government for relying on the evidence of convicted terrorists.

Prosecutors conceded that the witnesses were flawed but insisted they were honest in their testimony.

The prosecution accepted that Haouari did not know the details of the plot but said he was aware that he was helping with a terrorist mission.

Haouari, who is 32 and had run a gift shop in Montreal, now faces a sentence of up to 100 years in prison.