Omar Abdel-Rahman عمر عبد الرحمن | |
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| Born | 3 May 1938 Al Gammaliyyah, Dakahlia Governorate, Kingdom of Egypt |
| Died | 18 February 2017 (aged 78) FMC Butner, North Carolina, U.S. |
| Nationality | Egyptian |
| Other names | The Blind Sheikh |
| Criminal status | Deceased |
| Spouses |
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| Children | 10 |
| Conviction(s) | Seditious conspiracy, Terrorism |
| Criminal penalty | Life imprisonment plus 15 years |
Sheikh Omar Abdel-Rahman (Arabic: عمر عبد الرحمن), (ʾUmar ʾAbd ar-Raḥmān; 3 May 1938 – 18 February 2017), commonly known in the United States as "The Blind Sheikh", was a blind Egyptian Islamist militant who served a life sentence at the Federal Medical Center, Butner near Butner, North Carolina, United States. Formerly a resident of New York City, Abdel-Rahman and nine others were convicted of seditious conspiracy in 1995.[1] His prosecution grew out of investigations of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing.
Abdel-Rahman was the leader of Al-Jama'a al-Islamiyya (also known as "The Islamic Group"), a militant Islamist movement in Egypt that is considered a terrorist organization by the European Union and the Egyptian government. The group was responsible for many acts of violence, including the November 1997 Luxor massacre, in which 58 foreign tourists and four Egyptians were killed.
- ^ Perez, Richard (2 October 1995). "A Gamble Pays Off as the Prosecution Uses an Obscure 19th-Century Law". New York Times. Retrieved 8 April 2010.