Egyptian lawyer gets 25 years in prison for embassy bombings

NEW YORK (AP) — An Egyptian lawyer who pleaded guilty to conspiring to kill Americans in the 1998 U.S. embassy bombings in Africa was sentenced today to the maximum 25 years in prison by a judge who decried the "horror in this world."

U.S. District Judge Lewis A. Kaplan announced the sentence for Adel Abdul Bary, 54, saying he was the beneficiary of an "enormously generous plea bargain" that capped his potential sentence at 25 years. Before the September plea, Bary could have faced life in prison if he went to trial.

Kaplan said it was likely Bary would face about eight more years in prison because he has been incarcerated since 1999.

"This was as serious a crime against American citizens as I can imagine," the judge said.

Bary admitted spreading claims of responsibility and future terrorist threats after the August 1998 bombings of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania killed 224 people, including a dozen Americans.

The sentencing occurred after the judge heard Edith Bartley, whose father and brother were killed in the Kenya embassy bombing, describe how families were "living with unbearable pain and sorrow that never completely goes away."