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Abu Ghaith trial delayed until January 2014 because sequester would force some lawyers to be furloughed for five weeks
The trial of Osama bin Laden's son-in-law will not begin until next January, because of delays caused by the US budget sequester.
US district judge Lewis Kaplan announced the 7 January date on Tuesday for the trial in New York of Sulaiman Abu Ghaith, on charges that he conspired to kill Americans in his role as al-Qaida's chief propagandist.
At an earlier hearing on Monday, Kaplan said he had hoped to start the trial as early as this autumn until a public defender complained that across-the-board federal budget cuts, known as sequestration, would force some lawyers to be furloughed for more than five weeks, making it impossible to prepare for trial quickly.
The judge said he found it "extremely troublesome" and "stunning" that sequestration was interfering with the prosecution.
Abu Ghaith, who has pleaded not guilty, was brought to the United States last month to face charges that he urged the death of Americans after the September 11 terrorist attacks in 2001.
His attorneys say they intend to file several pretrial motions challenging the prosecution, including requests that the trial be moved away from a courthouse several blocks from the World Trade Center complex and that a lengthy statement Abu Ghaith provided to US authorities be suppressed.
Prosecutors say evidence against Abu Ghaith includes a widely circulated video of him in early October 2001 sitting with bin Laden and current al-Qaida leader Ayman al-Zawahiri and another in which he calls on every Muslim to join the fight against the United States, declaring that "jihad is a duty."
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
