War is deceit update: “ID thief gets 78 months: The Moroccan national’s testimony helped derail federal terror prosecution,” from The Detroit News, with thanks to the Constantinopolitan Irredentist:
DETROIT — Youssef Hmimssa, an expert identity thief who lied in connection with terrorism-related charges against four immigrants, was sentenced Thursday to 78 months in federal prison for a dozen felonies.
The Moroccan national said nothing and showed no emotion as U.S. District Judge Gerald Rosen ordered him to serve the maximum term allowed under a plea agreement reached between Hmimssa and federal prosecutors.
“It’s obvious to the court that you and the truth are complete strangers to each other,” Rosen told Hmimssa before handing down his sentence. “I believe, sir, you are a pathological liar.”
It brought to a close the four-year saga of a mysterious computer whiz who traveled to North Africa, Europe and the American Midwest using a passel of aliases and phony IDs drifting from scam to scam.
Hmimssa, 34, was the key witness for the U.S. government in its case against four men charged in Detroit with supporting terrorism. The 2003 trial was the first post-September 11 terror trial in the nation and resulted in a pair of convictions that were later overturned when prosecutors conceded the case was fraught with errors, including unreliable testimony from Hmimssa.
Under the agreement with prosecutors, Hmimssa pleaded guilty to 11 theft-related felonies….
Hmimssa faces deportation after he’s released.