Qtec
03-30-2006, 12:20 AM
[ QUOTE ]
Man Given 30 Years In Plot Against Bush
Judge Rejects Life Sentence for Abu Ali
By Caryle Murphy
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, March 30, 2006; A03
A federal judge in Alexandria yesterday sentenced Ahmed Omar Abu Ali, the Falls Church man convicted of conspiring to kill President Bush and of joining an al-Qaeda cell in Saudi Arabia, to 30 years in prison with 30 additional years of supervised release.
U.S. District Judge Gerald Bruce Lee denied government prosecutors' request to impose a life sentence, citing several mitigating factors, including the fact that Abu Ali "never planted any bombs, shot any gun or injured any person."
The 30-year sentence will "adequately and reasonably reflect" the seriousness of Abu Ali's offenses and "provide just punishment," Lee said, because it means the U.S.-born citizen, 25, will spend "most of his productive years in prison."
Abu Ali, dressed in a dark green jumpsuit with "Prisoner" stenciled in white on the back, showed no emotion when the sentence was announced. He declined to address the court before being sentenced.
Deputy Attorney General Paul J. McNulty hailed the sentence in a statement as "strong punishment for the defendant's egregious crimes. It is important that Abu Ali remain behind bars until he is no longer a threat to the American people."
McNulty called Abu Ali's prosecution "a milestone achievement in the international effort to bring terrorists to justice."
The sentence disappointed Abu Ali's family and friends, who maintain that he was wrongly convicted on statements that they say were obtained under coercion and torture during his 20-month incarceration in Saudi Arabia.
"I think it's a sad day not only for me as a mother but for the whole country," said Abu Ali's mother, Faten Abu Ali, after the proceedings. "America is all about justice and democracy. Before we export democracy to the outside, we have to have it in our own land. My son didn't have a fair trial."
Abu Ali attorney Khurrum Wahid called the sentence "disappointing," noting that Abu Ali had testified during a pretrial hearing that "he was tortured, and that is the only reason he had made these statements."
Lee later said he found it implausible that Abu Ali was tortured, and jurors said after their verdict that they did not believe his story.
At his trial in November, the jury convicted Abu Ali of nine counts, including conspiring to assassinate the president and commit aircraft piracy, providing material support to al-Qaeda and plotting terrorist activities in the United States. Those activities included kidnapping members of Congress.
Abu Ali's attorneys have said they will appeal his conviction.
The trial was the first in a U.S. criminal courtroom to rely so heavily on evidence gathered by a foreign intelligence service. Security officers from Saudi Arabia, testifying anonymously via video from the kingdom, provided significant portions of the government's case.
But Abu Ali's conviction was based primarily on his videotaped confession to Saudi authorities after his arrest there in June 2003. He was detained as he was taking final exams at the Islamic University of Medina after other members of the al-Qaeda cell he had joined identified him to Saudi police.
Saudi authorities declined to prosecute Abu Ali, and U.S. officials did not request that the Saudis hand him over to them. <font color="blue">Why didnt the US want him? </font color> His family then mounted a highly public campaign to have him brought home. They sued the U.S. government in federal court in Washington, contending that U.S. officials were complicit in the detention and torture of their son by Saudi security officers.
When that lawsuit threatened to force disclosure of information U.S. officials wanted to keep classified, the U.S. government formally asked for custody of Abu Ali. <font color="blue"> ie, they have no evidence! </font color>
In February 2005, Abu Ali was transferred to the Alexandria jail, where he has been in solitary confinement.<hr /></blockquote>
<font color="blue"> Do the Saudis torture? </font color>
[ QUOTE ]
“The practice of torture in Saudi Arabia is well-documented, and the government is legally obligated to investigate these recent allegations.”
Torture is prohibited under Saudi law and international human rights law. In October 1997, Saudi Arabia became a state party to the U.N. Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, and the convention’s provisions became part of Saudi domestic legislation.
Background
The three Britons, Paul Moss, David Mornin, and Kelvin Hawkins, were arrested in the wake of a series of bombings in Riyadh and Khobar. The bombings, which began in November 2000, killed one British citizen and injured others. Saudi authorities maintained that the violence was a consequence of turf wars among expatriates involved in the illegal but highly lucrative alcohol trade in the kingdom. Six other foreigners, one Canadian, one Belgian, and four Britons, continue to be held on suspicion of involvement in these incidents, but have not yet been charged or tried. Three of them were shown on Saudi state television on February 4, 2001, “confessing” to the bombings; the remaining three made similar “confessions” that were aired on August 13, 2001.
Moss and Mornin told the Guardian of severe physical abuse, and all three men said that they had been subjected to sleep deprivation while under interrogation:
Paul Moss, who was arrested in December 2000, described how he was treated while in the custody of the interior ministry at a facility in Riyadh, the Saudi capital, where he said he was held in solitary confinement for seven weeks. “I did not have a name: I was just addressed as a number throughout by an interrogator who was obviously well-educated. Every time I was taken from the windowless cell two floors up for interrogation I was blindfolded and shackled.” He told the Guardian that he was deprived of sleep, and beaten on four separate occasions: “They hit me in the testicles with a stick. Then they hit me on the chin each time as I went down.” Moss also alleged that he was intimidated and threatened: “They took me on the roof and said they would throw me off and say I'd been trying to escape. They said they'd done that before. They threatened to plant drugs in my house to get my wife and child beheaded.”
David Mornin, who was arrested in November 2000, said that he was held in solitary confinement in a punishment cell for eight weeks “with the light burning all the time.” He told the Guardian that he too was subjected to physical abuse and threats while in interior ministry custody, in attempts to elicit a confession: “They flung me off the walls, punched me in the gut, kicked me in the ribcage... they hammered me. They threatened to gang rape my wife, to plant drugs on her, they said they would take me to the desert and cut my throat and leave me there.” He continued: “They kick you awake, make you sit down, then stand up about every 15 minutes.” Mornin also described how he was suspended: “They hung me from bars above the door by my handcuffs so I was just on the balls of my feet for 24 hours at a time. They did that on four occasions.” He said that when he was released he “had to write a thank you note to the king, and sign to say I had not been mistreated.”
http://hrw.org/english/docs/2002/02/05/saudia3721.htm
<hr /></blockquote>
The paint-ball squad, the dirty bomber that never was and now a conviction on a confession obtained under torture.
Makes you feel safe, 'dont it'. /ccboard/images/graemlins/crazy.gif /ccboard/images/graemlins/crazy.gif /ccboard/images/graemlins/crazy.gif
Q
Man Given 30 Years In Plot Against Bush
Judge Rejects Life Sentence for Abu Ali
By Caryle Murphy
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, March 30, 2006; A03
A federal judge in Alexandria yesterday sentenced Ahmed Omar Abu Ali, the Falls Church man convicted of conspiring to kill President Bush and of joining an al-Qaeda cell in Saudi Arabia, to 30 years in prison with 30 additional years of supervised release.
U.S. District Judge Gerald Bruce Lee denied government prosecutors' request to impose a life sentence, citing several mitigating factors, including the fact that Abu Ali "never planted any bombs, shot any gun or injured any person."
The 30-year sentence will "adequately and reasonably reflect" the seriousness of Abu Ali's offenses and "provide just punishment," Lee said, because it means the U.S.-born citizen, 25, will spend "most of his productive years in prison."
Abu Ali, dressed in a dark green jumpsuit with "Prisoner" stenciled in white on the back, showed no emotion when the sentence was announced. He declined to address the court before being sentenced.
Deputy Attorney General Paul J. McNulty hailed the sentence in a statement as "strong punishment for the defendant's egregious crimes. It is important that Abu Ali remain behind bars until he is no longer a threat to the American people."
McNulty called Abu Ali's prosecution "a milestone achievement in the international effort to bring terrorists to justice."
The sentence disappointed Abu Ali's family and friends, who maintain that he was wrongly convicted on statements that they say were obtained under coercion and torture during his 20-month incarceration in Saudi Arabia.
"I think it's a sad day not only for me as a mother but for the whole country," said Abu Ali's mother, Faten Abu Ali, after the proceedings. "America is all about justice and democracy. Before we export democracy to the outside, we have to have it in our own land. My son didn't have a fair trial."
Abu Ali attorney Khurrum Wahid called the sentence "disappointing," noting that Abu Ali had testified during a pretrial hearing that "he was tortured, and that is the only reason he had made these statements."
Lee later said he found it implausible that Abu Ali was tortured, and jurors said after their verdict that they did not believe his story.
At his trial in November, the jury convicted Abu Ali of nine counts, including conspiring to assassinate the president and commit aircraft piracy, providing material support to al-Qaeda and plotting terrorist activities in the United States. Those activities included kidnapping members of Congress.
Abu Ali's attorneys have said they will appeal his conviction.
The trial was the first in a U.S. criminal courtroom to rely so heavily on evidence gathered by a foreign intelligence service. Security officers from Saudi Arabia, testifying anonymously via video from the kingdom, provided significant portions of the government's case.
But Abu Ali's conviction was based primarily on his videotaped confession to Saudi authorities after his arrest there in June 2003. He was detained as he was taking final exams at the Islamic University of Medina after other members of the al-Qaeda cell he had joined identified him to Saudi police.
Saudi authorities declined to prosecute Abu Ali, and U.S. officials did not request that the Saudis hand him over to them. <font color="blue">Why didnt the US want him? </font color> His family then mounted a highly public campaign to have him brought home. They sued the U.S. government in federal court in Washington, contending that U.S. officials were complicit in the detention and torture of their son by Saudi security officers.
When that lawsuit threatened to force disclosure of information U.S. officials wanted to keep classified, the U.S. government formally asked for custody of Abu Ali. <font color="blue"> ie, they have no evidence! </font color>
In February 2005, Abu Ali was transferred to the Alexandria jail, where he has been in solitary confinement.<hr /></blockquote>
<font color="blue"> Do the Saudis torture? </font color>
[ QUOTE ]
“The practice of torture in Saudi Arabia is well-documented, and the government is legally obligated to investigate these recent allegations.”
Torture is prohibited under Saudi law and international human rights law. In October 1997, Saudi Arabia became a state party to the U.N. Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, and the convention’s provisions became part of Saudi domestic legislation.
Background
The three Britons, Paul Moss, David Mornin, and Kelvin Hawkins, were arrested in the wake of a series of bombings in Riyadh and Khobar. The bombings, which began in November 2000, killed one British citizen and injured others. Saudi authorities maintained that the violence was a consequence of turf wars among expatriates involved in the illegal but highly lucrative alcohol trade in the kingdom. Six other foreigners, one Canadian, one Belgian, and four Britons, continue to be held on suspicion of involvement in these incidents, but have not yet been charged or tried. Three of them were shown on Saudi state television on February 4, 2001, “confessing” to the bombings; the remaining three made similar “confessions” that were aired on August 13, 2001.
Moss and Mornin told the Guardian of severe physical abuse, and all three men said that they had been subjected to sleep deprivation while under interrogation:
Paul Moss, who was arrested in December 2000, described how he was treated while in the custody of the interior ministry at a facility in Riyadh, the Saudi capital, where he said he was held in solitary confinement for seven weeks. “I did not have a name: I was just addressed as a number throughout by an interrogator who was obviously well-educated. Every time I was taken from the windowless cell two floors up for interrogation I was blindfolded and shackled.” He told the Guardian that he was deprived of sleep, and beaten on four separate occasions: “They hit me in the testicles with a stick. Then they hit me on the chin each time as I went down.” Moss also alleged that he was intimidated and threatened: “They took me on the roof and said they would throw me off and say I'd been trying to escape. They said they'd done that before. They threatened to plant drugs in my house to get my wife and child beheaded.”
David Mornin, who was arrested in November 2000, said that he was held in solitary confinement in a punishment cell for eight weeks “with the light burning all the time.” He told the Guardian that he too was subjected to physical abuse and threats while in interior ministry custody, in attempts to elicit a confession: “They flung me off the walls, punched me in the gut, kicked me in the ribcage... they hammered me. They threatened to gang rape my wife, to plant drugs on her, they said they would take me to the desert and cut my throat and leave me there.” He continued: “They kick you awake, make you sit down, then stand up about every 15 minutes.” Mornin also described how he was suspended: “They hung me from bars above the door by my handcuffs so I was just on the balls of my feet for 24 hours at a time. They did that on four occasions.” He said that when he was released he “had to write a thank you note to the king, and sign to say I had not been mistreated.”
http://hrw.org/english/docs/2002/02/05/saudia3721.htm
<hr /></blockquote>
The paint-ball squad, the dirty bomber that never was and now a conviction on a confession obtained under torture.
Makes you feel safe, 'dont it'. /ccboard/images/graemlins/crazy.gif /ccboard/images/graemlins/crazy.gif /ccboard/images/graemlins/crazy.gif
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