This August 7, 1998, file image shows Kenyan residents looking at the US embassy (L) days after the bomb blast that killed 224 people in the East African nation.

A Saudi man whom U.S. authorities described as one of Osama bin Laden’s closest advisers was sentenced to life in prison on Friday in connection with the deadly 1998 bombings of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.

Khalid al-Fawwaz was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan after being convicted of four conspiracy counts in federal court in New York in February.

He was not charged with planning or participating in the attacks, which killed 224 people and injured more than 4,000.

Instead, prosecutors accused him of working as a key bin Laden deputy in London, disseminating his murderous messages to media outlets and arranging for supplies to be sent to al-Qaeda members in Africa.

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