A New York judge has declined to appoint an attorney for a man captured in Libya last weekend and charged in the deadly 1998 bombings of US embassies in Africa.
Federal Judge Lewis Kaplan today rejected an application from the head of the Federal Defenders of New York to appoint an attorney for Abu Anas al-Libi.
The judge said a lawyer can be appointed only after an arrested defendant arrives in New York and proves he cannot afford a lawyer.
Kaplan says the government denies an official arrest has taken place.
The 49-year-old al-Libi was seized last Saturday and was being questioned aboard a Navy warship. He is charged in Manhattan in bombings that killed 224 people, including a dozen Americans.
