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Somali man gets 10-year sentence in Columbus mall plot
Nuradin Abdi's plan to blow up a Columbus shopping mall was no more than an idle threat, spoken in frustration, his attorney said yesterday. But federal prosecutors said those words were a small part of the case against Abdi, who was sentenced yesterday to 10 years in prison for conspiring to support terrorists.Abdi, 35, was arrested four years ago today and will receive credit for serving that time in the Franklin County jail. He will spend the remaining six years of his sentence in federal prison and then be deported to his native Somalia. The sentence, imposed by U.S. District Judge Algenon Marbley in Columbus, was in keeping with a plea bargain reached in July, when Abdi pleaded guilty to one of four counts against him. Defense lawyer Mahir Sherif told the court that Abdi, who lived on the North Side and worked at a cell-phone business, was frustrated by the U.S. military action in Afghanistan when he met with two co-conspirators at an Upper Arlington coffee shop in August 2002 and mentioned bombing a shopping mall. "He made the statement, but did he really intend to follow through? No, he did not," Sherif said. Assistant U.S. Attorney Robyn Jones Hahnert countered by saying the case against Abdi was "much bigger in scope than one isolated comment at the Caribou Coffee shop." In his guilty plea, Abdi admitted he lied to immigration officials in 1999 to receive a travel document that he used in an unsuccessful effort to visit a camp in Ethiopia for what prosecutors called "military-style training in preparation for violent jihad." The government said Abdi befriended Iyman Faris and Christopher Paul, both of whom met with him at the coffee shop. Faris, a Pakistani immigrant linked to a terrorist plot to destroy the Brooklyn Bridge, pleaded guilty in May 2003 to providing material support for al-Qaida. Paul, a Worthington native, was charged in April with plotting to bomb European tourist resorts. He is scheduled for trial in January 2009. Prosecutors said Abdi admitted conspiring with Faris and Paul to support foreign terrorists, even supplying Paul with credit-card numbers stolen from cell-phone customers to help fund the activities. Abdi's attorney said his client wanted the court to know that he "does not hate America" and that the principles of his Islamic faith include opposition to violence. He said Abdi wanted to apologize to Muslims "all over the world who may suffer indirectly from the consequences of his actions." Fred Alverson, a spokesman for the U.S. Attorney's office, said the government continues to investigate the possibility that the terrorist cell was larger than the three local men charged so far. "Other people are being looked at," he said. Posted by: ryuge 2007-11-28 |
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