US Appeals 22-yr Millenium Bomber Sentence
The U.S. government on Friday appealed the 22-year prison term for millennium bomber Ahmed Ressam, saying that the Algerian convicted of plotting to blow up Los Angeles International Airport deserved a longer sentence because he plotted to kill hundreds of innocent Americans.
Ressam was sentenced last month by U.S. Western District Judge John Coughenour for conspiracy to commit an international terrorist act, explosives smuggling and other criminal counts. Prosecutors had sought a 35-year term.
The 38-year-old Algerian was caught on the U.S.-Canada border in December 1999 with nitroglycerin in the trunk of his rented car, and he told authorities he planned to blow up the Los Angeles airport on the eve of the new millennium.
“We believe his actions warrant a sentence above 22 years, and that the district judge erred in imposing the sentence,” U.S. Attorney John McKay said in a statement.
The appeal was filed in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, which will set a date for a hearing and oral arguments.
Source: Reuters.
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