Bin Laden's publicist gets life in prison

By Jane Sutton

MIAMI (Reuters) - A U.S. military tribunal at Guantanamo sentenced Osama bin Laden's media secretary to life in prison on Monday after convicting him of conspiring with al Qaeda, soliciting murder and providing material support for terrorism.

Yemeni prisoner Ali Hamza al Bahlul was the second man to be convicted by a jury in the war crimes court at the U.S. naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

The jury of nine U.S. military officers reached their verdict on Friday after a weeklong trial in which the defendant and his lawyer refused to participate,

Bahlul, who is about 39, broke his silence at his sentencing hearing and delivered a speech praising bin Laden and predicting his own conviction would strengthen al Qaeda's fight against the United States, a military officer involved in the trial said.

Bahlul waved a paper airplane and read the jurors a poem he had written in praise of the September 11 attacks, the officer said.

FBI interrogators testified that Bahlul scripted the videotaped wills of two September 11 hijackers and boasted of making a two-hour al Qaeda commercial designed to recruit suicide bombers.

The recruitment video was filled with bloody images of violence against Muslims and portrayed the attack on the USS Cole as part of "The Solution." It praised the suicide bombers who drove a boat full of explosives into the side of the USS Cole in the Yemeni port of Aden in 2000, killing 17 American sailors.

Jurors agreed the recruitment video was a solicitation to commit murder.