Protection were deemed "expensive", as he reportedly was an "incessant troublemaker" who suffered severe emotional mood swings, a taste for womanizing and financial scheming. Testimony in court Al-Fadl testified in a trial, United States v. Osama bin Laden, No. S(7) 98 Cr. 1023 (S.D. N.Y.), Feb. 6, 2001 (transcript pp. 218–219, 233); Feb. 13, 2001 (transcript pp. 514–516); Feb. 20, 2001 (transcript p. 890). In January 2001, the trial began in New York City of four men accused of the 1998 U.S. embassy bombings in east Africa. The U.S also wanted to prosecute Osama bin Laden in his absence under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO). To be able to do so under American law, the prosecutors needed evidence of a criminal organization, which would then allow them to prosecute the leader, even if he could not be linked directly to the crime. Al-Fadl was taken on as a key prosecution witness, who, along with a number of other sources, claimed that Osama bin Laden was the leader of a large international terrorist organization which was called al-Qaeda. al-Fadl provided a list of 25 names he claimed were the key members of the group, which included five identifiable Saudis and six identifiable Egyptians. Fatwa In giving testimony, Jamal al-Fadl described a 1992 fatwa issued by "Abu Hajer al Iraqi" (Mamdouh Mahmud Salim) at the request of Al Qaeda leadership, that was putatively based on an earlier fatwa by the influential 14th-century Salafi scholar Ibn Taymiyyah ("Ibn al Tamiyeh") permitting the killing of Muslim supporters of the "Tartars" (Mongols) who threatened to invade the Mamluk Sultanate in Egypt. The fatwa has been described as a pivotal development<ref name=wright-174>{{cite book|last1=Wright|first1=Lawrence|title=Looming Tower: Al Qaeda and the Road to 9/11|date=2006|publisher=Knopf|location=NY|pages=174–5|url=https://archive.org/details/loomingtoweralqa00wrig|url-access=registration|quote=One Thursday evening, Abu Hajer addressed the ethics of killing innocent people.|accessdate=3 October 2015}}</ref> in that it provided al-Qaeda with justification for the killing of Muslim civilians and bystanders. Q. Can you tell us now what Abu Hajer al Iraqi said about Ibn al Tamiyeh? A. He said that our time now is similar like in that time, and he say Ibn al Tamiyeh, when a tartar come to Arabic war, Arabic countries that time, he say some Muslims, they help them. And he says Ibn al Tamiyeh, he make a fatwah. He said anybody around the tartar, he buy something from them and he sell them something, you should kill him. And