Reports of Subway Plot Won’t Halt Bomb Trial

NEW YORK — A judge pressed ahead with the trial of the alleged mastermind of the World Trade Center bombing after the jurors assured him Monday that an apparent suicide bombing plot discovered in Brooklyn just days ago would not affect their judgment.

Opening arguments in the trial of Ramzi Ahmed Yousef and a co-defendant were postponed until today because one juror called in sick.

U.S. District Judge Kevin T. Duffy spent Monday privately questioning the jurors on what they knew about the alleged plot uncovered by police last week in Brooklyn and also about the deadly suicide bombings in Jerusalem last week.

Most of the jurors admitted seeing headlines or hearing radio and TV reports of last week’s events, according to transcripts. But all said that would not influence them.

This is the second trial involving the Feb. 26, 1993, blast at the World Trade Center that killed six people, injured more than 1,000 and did more than $500 million in damage. In 1994, Duffy sentenced four other men to 240 years each in prison.

Yousef, an electrical engineer of uncertain nationality, is accused of organizing the plot and building the bomb. He was a fugitive for two years before he was captured in Pakistan in 1995.

Also on trial is Eyad Ismoil, a Palestinian who allegedly rode in the van carrying the bomb into the trade center’s underground garage.

Last year, Yousef and two other men were convicted of an unrelated plot--a foiled plan to blow up a dozen U.S. jetliners in two days.