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Lackawanna One gets reduced sentence
A federal judge agreed Friday to take a year off the prison sentence of a man who was among six who admitted to attending a terrorist training camp but who helped prosecutors in his case and others. Yahya Goba, 30, had been sentenced to 10 years in prison in 2003 after pleading guilty to providing material support to a terrorist organization by attending the al-Qaida training camp. "The nature and extent of Goba's assistance, his willingness to testify at trial, and particularly the fact that his cooperation has been entirely voluntary and come at a heavy cost to himself and his family, warrants the 12-month sentence reduction," said U.S. District Judge William Skretny.Goba has since testified in several other cases, exceeding the obligations of his plea agreement, according to federal prosecutors who sought the reduction. Most recently, Goba testified in the trial of Jose Padilla, 37, who along with two co-defendants was convicted Aug. 16 in Miami of conspiracy to murder, kidnap and maim people overseas. Goba and five other young Yemeni-American men from Lackawanna, outside Buffalo, were arrested in September 2002 after investigators learned they received military-type training at the al-Farooq camp in spring and summer 2001. All pleaded guilty and received sentences between seven and 10 years. With the sentence reduction, Goba is expected to be released sometime in 2010. Posted by: Seafarious 2007-12-16 |
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