Remember the "Fireworks Boys"?
TAMPA - Defense attorneys for a 27-year-old Egyptian man who pleaded guilty to trying to help terrorists are asking a judge to sentence him to eight years in prison, not the 15-year-term being requested by prosecutors.
Ahmed Mohamed, a former student at the University of South Florida, is scheduled to be sentenced Thursday by U.S. District Judge Steven D. Merryday for posting a video on the Web site YouTube in which he demonstrates how to use a remote-control toy to detonate a bomb. The purpose of the video, Mohamed has said, was to help "martyrs" who target U.S. forces overseas.
In a sentencing memorandum, defense attorneys maintain Mohamed should be spared an excessively long prison sentence, partly because there is "no evidence that anyone actually used the information that he produced to harm any American or any other person. There is no evidence of any victims of this crime."
Hmmmmmm. Too bad he copped that guilty plea. Kinda complicates things.
Prosecutors, in a memo submitted to the court last month, maintained that Mohamed came to this country to gather information about explosives "to cause harm within this country."
Mohamed was arrested, along with his friend, Youssef Megahed, last year in South Carolina after deputies there said they found explosives in the trunk of their car. Megahed is still awaiting trial on charges of illegally transporting explosives.
Mohamed's attorneys, Linda Moreno and Lyann Goudie, also say in their memorandum that Mohamed has been subject to abuse while in jail pending prosecution.
Mohamed has been repeatedly strip-searched and not allowed to cover himself, they write. "His cell has been routinely searched and property tossed in greater numbers than those of other inmates. When he has been returned to his cell, his personal belongings are often arranged in the form of a cross. His religion has been demeaned, with the guards taunting profanities at Allah, the Islamic word for God. His Koran was often thrown on the floor and his prayer sheets tossed in the toilet.
Aw, geez. Not the Koran shit...
When he attempted to pray during his rare recreation time, he was physically prevented from doing so and his privileges were terminated, including the elimination of recreation time altogether. He was repeatedly humiliated and disrespected.
How do they know this? He told them.
"This adverse treatment has caused him psychological harm and prompted defense counsel to assistance from the United States Attorney to relocate him to a more humane facility," the attorneys added. "As a result of such inhumane and debilitating treatment, counsel has observed Mr. Mohamed's physical health deteriorate. From the time of his arrest, to the first meeting with defense counsel, Mr. Mohamed had lost over 40 pounds. Mr. Mohamed had also been placed on suicide watch while housed at the local detention facility as a result of his noted depression."
The prosecution memo says Mohamed has lashed out at corrections officials: "The coldest statement of this defendant and the most telling as to his hatred and disdain for the United States came in a hand-written letter which the defendant sent to a Hillsborough County jail deputy on April 1, 2008. In that letter, which he signed, the defendant 'congratulated' the jail deputy upon the fact that the Pentagon had recently announced the death of more than 4,000 U.S. troops in the Middle East."
The defense attorneys argue that Mohamed will serve his federal prison sentence under harsh conditions. "Mr. Mohamed will face a stark existence with long term psychological effects," they write. "He will be kept in virtual isolation, 23 hours each day, and denied any meaningful contact with his family and the outside world, except an occasional visit with his lawyers. Correspondence by mail will be greatly restricted due to the government's administrative review procedures."
Hmmmmmmmmmmmmm. Sounds like...prison.
They maintain that such isolation has been documented to psychologically damage inmates.