Immigrant sentenced in bombing plot

If he had not taken the plea deal, he could have faced 80 years in prison.

COLUMBUS (AP) — A Somali immigrant the government says plotted to blow up an Ohio shopping mall was sentenced to 10 years in prison Tuesday.

Nuradin Abdi, a cell phone salesman before his arrest, will be deported to Somalia after serving the sentence. U.S. District Judge Algenon Marbley imposed the prison term as part of a plea deal Abdi agreed to in July.

Abdi was likely to receive credit for the four years he’s spent in custody since his arrest Nov. 29, 2003, said Fred Alverson, a spokesman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

Abdi pleaded guilty to one count of conspiring to provide material support to terrorists, a conspiracy that included the mall plot. He could have received 80 years in prison had he been convicted of all the counts he initially faced.

The Justice Department accused Abdi of suggesting the plan to attack an unidentified Columbus shopping mall during an August 2002 meeting at a Caribou Coffee shop with now-convicted al-Qaida terrorist Iyman Faris and a third suspect, Christopher Paul.

In a 20-minute statement to the court, Abdi’s attorney Mahir Sherif said his client apologized to the people of the United States, the people of Ohio and the Muslim community. He said Abdi regretted that his conviction might lead to problems for other Muslims.

“He apologizes for the things he thought about and the things he talked about and the crimes he pleaded guilty to,” Sherif said.

“He wants to make it very, very clear that he does not hate America.”

The alleged plot was never carried out, and Sherif long maintained Abdi was guilty at most of ranting about the United States’ handling of the war in Afghanistan.

Sherif said Abdi came to think the way he did because of Islamic teachings to pay attention to injustice. “Did he really intend to follow through?” Sherif told Marbley. “No, he did not.”

Abdi opposes suicide bombings and the killing of innocent people and never pledged allegiance to al-Qaida, Sherif added.

At Sherif’s request, Marbley agreed to recommend that Abdi not be placed in solitary confinement. Sherif said Abdi suffered mental problems when he was first arrested and held in isolation.

A federal prosecutor told Marbley that the case against Abdi went far beyond an angry comment about a shopping mall. Assistant U.S. Attorney Robyn Jones Hahnert said Abdi illegally traveled out of the United States to search for holy war training and that he provided stolen credit card numbers to buy equipment such as laptop computers for use in terrorism.

“This is a much bigger scope than one isolated statement in a Caribou Coffee shop,” Hahnert said.

“The United States is a country that welcomes people to question — that’s what we’re all about,” she told Marbley. “But that questioning should not lead to criminal activity that can harm people.”

Abdi’s attorneys have said that the stolen credit card numbers were never used and that the Justice Department never alleged what organization they believed was running the training camp Abdi was accused of visiting, what Abdi intended to do with the training or whether he ever actually went.

A family spokesman said after the sentencing that the government exaggerated the facts against Abdi knowing they would be hard to disprove.

“Since this was not a session where everybody has to bring their proof, they could have made any kind of statement,” said Yusuf Abucar, a Columbus architect originally from Somalia.

Alverson said Abdi agreed to a lengthy statement of facts outlining the allegations as part of his plea deal.

Abdi and the two “could attack the mall with a bomb,” Abdi told his friends as they sipped $11.25 in refreshments at the coffee shop Aug. 8, 2002, according to court documents.

Faris pleaded guilty in May 2003 to providing material support for terrorism. A Pakistani immigrant, Faris was convicted of plotting to destroy the Brooklyn Bridge and sentenced to 20 years in prison.

Paul, a U.S. citizen who grew up in suburban Columbus, was charged in April with plotting to bomb European tourist resorts frequented by Americans as well as overseas U.S. military bases, and his trial is scheduled for January 2009.

Abdi was arrested Nov. 28, 2003, the day after Thanksgiving, as he left his house for morning prayer.