WASHINGTON, Feb 19 – A US military tribunal on Friday sentenced a Sudanese prisoner at Guantanamo to 14 years in prison for helping Al-Qaeda and providing material support to terrorism.
Mohammed confessed to training a convicted bomber who participated in the attack on the US embassy in Nairobi, Kenya, a member of a failed plot to bomb Los Angeles International Airport in 1999 and Zacarias Moussaoui, a French national sentenced to life in prison for complicity in the September 11, 2001 attacks.
But under terms of a plea agreement, Noor Uthman Mohammed was not expected to serve the full sentence if he keeps his promise to cooperate with US investigators in other cases.
"If Mr. Mohammed fails to comply with his promise to testify and cooperate, he can be required to serve all 14 years of his sentence," the Pentagon said in a statement.
Captured in March 2002 in Pakistan, Mohammed is the sixth inmate at the US-run prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to be convicted and the third since President Barack Obama took office.
In his guilty plea, Mohammed admitted he worked as a weapons instructor at a "terrorist training" camp in Afghanistan and agreed to teach "recruits to commit acts of terrorism in support of Al-Qaeda or affiliated terrorist organizations engaged in hostilities against the United States," the statement said.
Mohammed was a deputy commander of the camp in Khaldan, Afghanistan, starting in 1994, according to charge sheets.
Military prosecutors say Al-Qaeda fighters and some hijackers in the September 11 attacks passed through the paramilitary camp.
About The Author
