Libyan accused of US embassy bombings which killed 244 and wounded more than 5,000 dies in New York hospital aged 50 - just days before start of trial

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Abu Anas al-Libi, A Libyan accused over the 1998 Al-Qaeda bombings of US embassies in Africa died on Friday

A Libyan accused over the 1998 Al-Qaeda bombings of US embassies in Africa died on Friday, days before he was to stand trial in New York, his lawyer and family said.

Abu Anas al-Libi, 50, was on the FBI's most-wanted list with a $5 million price on his head when he was captured by US troops in the Libyan capital Tripoli in October 2013.

He and Saudi businessman Khalid al-Fawwaz were due to stand trial on January 12 over the attacks on the US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania that killed 244 people and wounded more than 5,000.

Libi, a computer expert, died at a hospital in the New York area on Friday, his lawyer Bernard Kleinman told The Washington Post, saying the health of his client -- who had advanced liver cancer - had deteriorated significantly in the last month.

Al-Libi's wife said Saturday her husband underwent liver surgery three weeks ago, went into a brief coma and was moved prematurely back to prison. 

She said the last time she spoke to al-Libi, 'his voice was weak and he was in a bad condition.'

On Friday, she said a lawyer told her that al-Libi had been taken to a hospital and put on a ventilator.

She added: 'He was dying then.' 

In a federal court filing Saturday, U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara said al-Libi died after being taken from New York's Metropolitan Correctional Center to a local hospital.

'Despite the care provided at the hospital, his condition deteriorated rapidly and (he) passed away,' Bharara wrote.

Libi and Fawwaz both previously pleaded not guilty to conspiracy charges.

A third suspect, Egyptian Adel Abdel Bary, last year pleaded guilty to playing a role in the 1998 attacks. 

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An injured man is removed from the wreckage after an explosion near the U.S. Embassy in Nairobi in 1998. Abu Anas al-Libi is believed to have suggested bombing the embassy and performed surveillance in advance of the attack

FBI agents look for evidence through the U.S. Embassy in Nairobi debris. The bomb blast claimed the lives of at least 247 people and injured nearly 5,000 - an attack Abu Anas al-Libi is believed to have been involved in coordinating

Libi, who also suffered from hepatitis C, told a federal court in Manhattan in October that he had been on hunger strike when questioned by FBI agents - during which he made an incriminating statement.

Looking pale and thin, and speaking very quietly through a translator, Libi told the court that he had told 'anyone who asked' that he was on a hunger strike.

He was detained by US commandos on October 5, 2013, and interrogated on board a US warship before being handed over to FBI agents on October 12.

Kleinman says Libi was innocent and had cut his ties with Al-Qaeda before the 1998 attacks.

Libi's son Abdel Mouin told CNN by telephone from Tripoli early Saturday that his father had been in a coma before his death and that the family holds the US government 'fully responsible' for his demise.

His wife, who asked to be identified as Um Abdullah, told The Associated Press that his experience only worsened his ailments.

'I accuse the American government of kidnapping, mistreating, and killing an innocent man. He did nothing,' Um Abdullah said. 

Al-Libi, which means 'of Libya' in Arabic, was his nom de guerre.

Also known as Nazih Abdul-Hamed al-Ruqai, U.S. prosecutors in 2000 described al-Libi as sitting on a council that approved terrorist operations for al-Qaida, which would become infamous worldwide a year later after the September 11 terror attacks.

Before that, al-Qaida's August 7, 1998, truck bombings at the U.S. embassies in Nairobi, Kenya, and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, were its deadliest assault. 

The bombs tore through the embassies and nearby buildings, killing 213 people and wounding some 4,500 in Kenya alone. 

Abdullah al-Raghie (left), and Nabih al-Raghie, the son and brother respectively, of al-Qaeda suspect Abu Anas al-Libi speak to the press in Nofleine, near the Libyan capital Tripoli (file)

The Tanzania attack, conducted minutes later, killed 11 people and wounded 85.

Al-Libi, believed to be a computer specialist for al-Qaida, conducted visual and photographic surveillance of the U.S. Embassy in Nairobi in late 1993, the federal court indictment against him and others alleges. 

In 1994, he and other al-Qaida members researched alternate potential sites in Nairobi including the local office of the U.S. Agency for International Development, as well as 'British, French and Israeli targets,' according to the indictment.

His path to Kenya and al-Qaida remains unclear. 

Al-Libi is believed to have spent time in Sudan, where Osama bin Laden was based in the early 1990s. 

After bin Laden was forced to leave Sudan, al-Libi turned up in Britain in 1995 where he was granted political asylum under unclear circumstances and lived in Manchester. 

He was arrested by Scotland Yard in 1999, but released because of lack of evidence and later fled Britain. 

After his indictment in December 2000 over the embassy bombings, U.S. officials said they believed he was hiding in Afghanistan.

Al-Libi later said in court filings that he returned to Libya as dissent against dictator Moammar Gadhafi grew into an open revolt that led to the leader's downfall and killing in 2011. 

He said he 'joined with forces of NATO and the United States' to replace Gadhafi, hoping to establish a 'stable Islamic secular state.'

In October 2013, the U.S. Army's Delta Force swooped into Tripoli and seized al-Libi after dawn prayers, his brother Nabih al-Ruqai said. 

Al-Libi said the soldiers took him to the USS San Antonio, where CIA agents interrogating him warned the questioning would be the 'easiest step' of three.

'I took this to mean that the physical and psychological torture would only increase if I failed to cooperate with my questioners,' he said in a court affidavit.

 'These threats continued the entire time I was on board the ship.'

Al-Libi's lawyer, Bernard Kleinman, argued his client didn't plan the bombing.

'This case involves issues much more tinged with emotion and trauma than other cases,' Kleinman said in 2013. 

'The fact that Mr. al-Libi will be tried in New York, barely a half mile from the World Trade Center site, and that Osama bin Laden and al-Qaida will be referenced numerous times in connection with his co-defendants cannot be ignored.'

Al-Libi isn't the only terror suspect to be snatched by U.S. special forces in Libya. American troops last year grabbed Ahmed Abu Khattala, a suspect in the 2012 attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi that killed four Americans, including U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens.

The ability for U.S. troops to move freely in Libya reflects the chaos gripping the country beset by rival militias and political factions in the years since Gadhafi's downfall. 

Battles openly rage in its east and west as Islamic militant groups have turned coastline cities and border areas into safe havens.

Libya's rival governments had no immediate reaction to al-Libi's death.