Bomb-Plotter’s Sentence Is Questioned
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SEATTLE — Prosecutors and defense attorneys are challenging aspects of the 22-year sentence imposed on Ahmed Ressam for plotting to bomb Los Angeles International Airport on the eve of the new millennium.
The U.S. attorney’s office has suggested that U.S. District Judge John Coughenour’s decision to sentence Ressam to less than the 35 years it requested may have been colored by a distaste for the Bush administration’s treatment of “enemy combatants.”
And Ressam’s lawyers, Thomas Hillier and Michael Filipovic, believe one of the nine counts he was convicted of should be thrown out, which would reduce the sentence by 10 years.
A three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals will hear arguments today. Customs agents in Port Angeles, across the Strait of Juan de Fuca from Canada, caught Ressam with explosives in the trunk of his car when he arrived by ferry in December 1999.
The arrest raised fears of terrorism attacks and prompted the cancellation of millennium celebrations at Seattle’s Space Needle. Ressam was convicted of terrorism and explosives charges at trial in then started telling investigators what he knew about Al Qaeda in an effort to win a shorter sentence.
The prosecution appeal cites Judge Coughenour’s comments at Ressam’s sentencing, when he said Ressam’s case showed that American courts are plenty capable of handling terrorism cases.
“We did not need to use a secret military tribunal or detain the defendant indefinitely as an enemy combatant, or deny him the right to counsel, or invoke any proceedings beyond those guaranteed by or contrary to the United States Constitution,” the judge said.
“Even taking into account his cooperation, the sentence was far too short. Ressam has told us he intended to kill as many people as he could at the Los Angeles Airport. That’s what he should be sentenced for,” U.S. Attorney John McKay said.
Judge Coughenour noted that before the trial, the government offered Ressam a chance to plead guilty in exchange for a sentence of 25 years, with no cooperation required.
