1.
Mother said Josh Powell threatened her
NEW YORK, Sept. 2 (UPI) -- An alleged former assistant to al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden was given a life term for assaulting a corrections officer, a New York attorney announced.
Preet Bharara, the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, said alleged bin Laden aide Mahmoud Mamduh Salim was resentenced in a Manhattan federal court to life in prison for assaulting Louis Pepe, a corrections officer, in November 2000.
According to the indictment, Salim attempted to kill the corrections officer at the Metropolitan Correctional Center while he was awaiting trial in a case involving the bombings of the U.S. embassies in Tanzania and Kenya in 1998.
He was captured in Germany in 1998 and extradited to the United States. An alleged co-founder of al-Qaida, Salim was sentenced in 2004 to 32 years in prison for attempting to kill Pepe.
Federal prosecutors appealed the sentence because the court didn't impose an enhancement for conduct that involves terrorism, the FBI said in a statement.
The judge in the case described the attack, which left Pepe blind in one eye and confined to a wheelchair, as "appalling." Considerations were also made because Salim used "religious and psychological coercion" to convince his co-conspirator Khalfan Khamis Mohammed to take part in the attack, the statement added.
Mohammed was also accused of playing a role in the embassy bombings.
Bharara said the life sentence "provides at least a small measure of vindication" for Pepe's family.
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Additional Special Reports Stories | |
TACOMA, Wash., Feb. 9 (UPI) --
The mother of Josh Powell, who killed himself and his sons in a fire in Washington state, said in divorce papers he exhibited disturbing behavior as a teenager.
|
NEW YORK, Feb. 9 (UPI) --
Macaulay Culkin is in "perfectly good health," his publicist said after the former child star was photographed looking gaunt and disheveled in New York.
|
WASHINGTON, Feb. 9 (UPI) --
President Obama hailed a $25 billion agreement among 49 states, the U.S. government and the five biggest mortgage servicers.
|
XINXIANG CITY, China, Feb. 9 (UPI) --
A set of parents in China said they expected a large baby, but they were shocked when their son came out weighing a potentially record-setting 15 1/2 pounds.
|
| Stories | Photos | People | Comments |
View Caption
