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| Home Front: WoT |
| Year cut for al-Qaeda financier |
| 2006-02-18 |
| An Islamic charity director accused by federal prosecutors of having links to Osama bin Laden's terrorist network was resentenced Friday to 10 years in prison _ about a year less than his original sentence. Enaam Arnaout, 42, pleaded guilty to racketeering in 2003, admitting he defrauded donors to his Benevolence International Foundation by diverting some of the money to Islamic military groups in Bosnia and Chechnya. "Give me a life, your honor," Arnaout said in an emotional appeal to U.S. District Judge Suzanne B. Conlon for a much larger reduction in his sentencing. He said he wanted to "see my 75-year-old mom before she dies." The resentencing was held because the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals found that Conlon erred the first time. She boosted the sentence when she held that more than 50 donors to the charity had been defrauded, but the appeals court found insufficient evidence to conclude that the fraud affected that many people. The initial sentence was 11 years and four months in prison plus $315,624 in restitution. With time off for good behavior, federal prisoners ordinarily serve 85 percent of their sentences. U.S. Attorney Patrick J. Fitzgerald told reporters after the resentencing that he was "satisfied that the process has been seen through this is still a very serious sentence." Arnaout, a Syrian-born U.S. citizen, has said he has met bin Laden but opposes terrorism, and has denied having anything to do with his al-Qaida network. His attorneys have said the two men met in the 1980s, when bin Laden was part of the U.S.-supported struggle of Afghan fighters to expel the Soviet army. |
| Posted by:Dan Darling |