Bin Laden Right-Hand Man Released from Prison for Being Too Obese During COVID

Adel Abdel Bary, 60, is bad news. The former Osama bin Laden right-hand man was convicted of plotting two U.S. embassies bombings in Africa in 1998. Altogether, Bary’s plans killed 224 people, including 12 Americans.

Bary, known as Bin Laden’s spokesman in Europe, was freed from prison in New Jersey on Tuesday and flew into the U.K, the Sun reports. Did the justice system convict the wrong person? Nope, a Manhattan federal judge agreed that the terrorist was “way too obese” to survive the coronavirus in prison, so she released him.

In 2012, the terrorist was extradited to the U.S. after his 1999 arrest and got 25 years after he admitted his role in the bombings. His sentence included credit for the years he spent behind bars in Britain

A security source quoted in the report is concerned, saying that “his return remains a huge headache for the Home Secretary. She is intent on ridding the country of threats, but here’s a notorious terrorist dumped right on her doorstep.”

But his lawyer made a stronger case, it turns out. Arguing, “Mr. Bary’s continued incarceration now significantly increases his risk of infection, which could wreak disastrous health outcomes.” Prosecutors disagreed that Bary’s age made him more vulnerable to COVID-19, but conceded that his weight did.

Neither the defense attorney nor the judge disputed that Bary “was a senior member of a terror cell and had claimed responsibility for the bombings.” That fact made little difference in the decision to release him.

“Defendant’s obesity and somewhat advanced age make COVID-19 significantly more risky to him than to the average person,” U.S. District Judge Lewis A. Kaplan wrote in granting the release.

Bary was reunited with his wife, Ragaa, who lives in a $1 million-plus apartment in Maida Vale, North West London. Not a bad trade-off for being obese, huh?

Bary couldn’t get sent back to his native Egypt at the risk of “death or torture,” the report notes. And the U.K. couldn’t block his return, as he was granted asylum there in 1997 before his 1999 arrest. So the U.K., it is.

Edith Bartley, whose younger brother was among Bary’s many victims, is rightfully angered.

“Just serving a sentence doesn’t mean that a person has been rehabilitated, doesn’t mean that their core thinking has changed,” she responds. “This is a person who can still do harm in the world.”

Uh, yes.

Per Bary’s lawyer, the terrorist just “wants to enjoy a quiet life with his family.”

Got that? After plotting and executing the bombing of two U.S. embassies, aiding and abetting Bin Laden, and killing 224 people — Adel Abdel Bary wants to live a quiet, private life.

Imprisoned terrorists who wish to live out the rest of their days in a similar manner should take note and take in as many calories as they can. Being “way too obese” may not get you everywhere you want to be, but it will get you out of prison in COVID times.