Abu Ali gets 30 years for Bush assassination plot
A federal judge today sentenced a Falls Church man convicted of conspiring to kill President Bush in an al-Qaeda conspiracy to 30 years in prison with 30 additional years of supervised release. U.S. District Judge Gerald Bruce Lee denied the government’s request to impose a life sentence on 25-year-old Ahmed Omar Abu Ali.
His mother, Faten Abu Ali, said in an interview after her son’s sentencing:
“I think it’s a sad day not only for me as a mother but for the whole country. America is all about justice and democracy. Before we export democracy to the outside, we have to have it in our own land. My son didn’t have a fair trial.”
A federal jury in Alexandria convicted Abu Ali, a U.S. citizen, on all nine counts against him in November. They included conspiracy to assassinate the president, conspiracy to commit aircraft piracy, providing material support to al-Qaeda, plotting terrorist activities in the United States and conspiring to kidnap members of Congress. He faced a mandatory minimum of 20 years and a maximum sentence of life.
Abu Ali was arrested by Saudi security officers in June 2003 as he was taking final exams at the Islamic University of Medina on suspicion that he was connected to the May 12, 2003 bombing of three residential compounds in Riyadh. The bombing killed 23 people.
Abu Ali, who was studying in Saudi Arabia at the time he joined an al-Qaeda cell, was held in that country for 20 months before U.S. authorities requested he be turned over to them. He was brought home in February 2005 and has been held in solitary confinement in the Alexandria detention center since then.
The trial was the first in an American criminal courtroom to rely so heavily on evidence gathered by a foreign intelligence service. Security officers from Saudi Arabia provided the bulk of the government’s case, testifying via video from the kingdom.
Abu Ali’s conviction was based primarily on his confession to Saudi authorities while in detention there. His defense attorney argued the confession was coerced and obtained only after he was tortured by Saudi officials and denied legal counsel.
Abu Ali’s parents mounted a highly public campaign to have him brought back from Saudi Arabia, suing the U.S. government in U.S. District Court in Washington, contending that it had condoned the torture of their son. They alleged that their son was tortured by Saudi security officers and that U.S. officials were complicit in the treatment.
The successful prosecution of Abu Ali could smooth cooperation in terrorism investigations between U.S. and other intelligence services, which normally are reluctant to allow their officers to testify in a U.S. criminal case.
Prosecutors said the conviction marked a major victory in the campaign against terrorism.
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