1993 World Trade Center bombing mastermind dies in prison

Egyptian-born cleric Omar Abdel-Rahman, who was serving a life sentence for plotting the 1993 bombing at the World Trade Center and other terror attacks in New York, passed away in prison.

Quoting Greg Norton, spokesman with the federal correctional complex in Butner, North Carolina, the CNN reports that Rahman died Saturday morning from natural causes at age 78. He had battled diabetes and coronary heart disease, Norton said.

The February 1993 attack on the Manhattan landmark left six people dead and injured more than 1,000 others.

Abdel-Rahman was linked to the attack after other suspects were found to have frequented the New Jersey mosque where he preached.

Rahman denied involvement in the earlier attack in which a bomb exploded in a parking garage under 2 World Trade Center.

Abdel-Rahman also was convicted in a plot to assassinate then-Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.

In August 1993, he was indicted for involvement in a broader terrorist plot that included the World Trade Center bombing. He was convicted in October 1995 of seditious conspiracy and sentenced to life in prison.