Ex-bin Laden aide not required to be in NYC court when resentenced for stabbing guard in 2000

Ex-bin Laden aide to be a no-show at resentencing

NEW YORK — A federal judge poised to resentence a former top aide to Osama bin Laden in the stabbing of a prison guard has agreed to let the inmate appear on a video monitor from prison.

Judge Deborah Batts is scheduled to resentence Mamdouh Mahmud Salim on Tuesday in the 2000 stabbing of guard Louis Pepe at a New York City prison. The stabbing left Pepe brain-damaged.

A federal appeals court said Batts should have imposed a terrorism enhancement that could elevate Salim’s sentence from the 32 years he got to life in prison.

Salim was brought to the U.S. after his 1998 arrest to stand trial in the August 1998 bombings of two U.S. embassies in Africa. The attacks killed 224 people, including a dozen Americans.