Nuradin Abdi Update. From the Associated Press:
COLUMBUS, Ohio “” A judge on Tuesday sentenced a Somali immigrant to 10 years in prison for plotting to blow up an Ohio shopping mall with a man later convicted of being an Al Qaeda terrorist.
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 sentence as part of a plea deal Abdi agreed to in July.
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.
One of those miraculous changes of heart precipitated by getting caught.
“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.”
Yeah, sure, it’s a swell place. It’s just so full of infidel Americans.
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.
Abdi pleaded guilty to one count of conspiring to provide material support for terrorists. Three charges were dropped as part of his plea deal; Abdi could have received 80 years in prison had he been convicted of all the counts he had faced.