Federal prosecutors announced Wednesday that they would put six South Florida men on trial for a third time in January for allegedly plotting to destroy Chicago's Sears Tower.
The two previous trials in the so-called Liberty City Seven case -- named for the blighted Miami neighborhood where the defendants lived -- ended in hung juries. But one of the seven men arrested in June 2006 after an FBI sting operation was acquitted.
Prosecutors contend that the men sought funding from Al Qaeda as part of a plot to bomb the Chicago landmark and FBI buildings in other cities. At the time of the men's arrest, federal officials deemed them to be "homegrown terrorists" and asserted that the sting had prevented a major terrorist strike.
The alleged ringleader, Narseal Batiste, testified at both trials that he was only trying to bilk the man posing as an Al Qaeda financier of $50,000 to set up a construction firm for himself and the other defendants.
Lyglenson Lemorin, 33, was acquitted in December but remains in custody as immigration officials seek to deport him to his native Haiti.
U.S. District Judge Joan Lenard, who presided over the first trials, agreed last week to allow four of the remaining defendants to be released on bond.
The men, who each face four terrorism conspiracy charges, could get up to 70 years in prison if convicted.
carol.williams@latimes.com
