Syrian-born arms dealer gets 30 years in prison
By LARRY NEUMEISTER, Associated Press Writer
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
(02-24) 17:01 PST NEW YORK, (AP) --
A Syrian-born arms dealer was sentenced Tuesday to 30 years in prison for conspiring to sell weapons to Colombian militants while knowing they sought to kill Americans.
Monzer al-Kassar, 63, long suspected of aiding militants in some of the world's bloodiest conflicts, was convicted in November of conspiring to sell millions of dollars of weapons to militants in a sting operation. No weapons were ever exchanged.
U.S. District Judge Jed S. Rakoff said al-Kassar and co-defendant Luis Felipe Moreno Godoy, 60, had engaged in terrorism-related crimes that were chronicled with overwhelming evidence, including videotaped conversations. He sentenced Moreno to 25 years in prison.
"I think it's fair to say Mr. al-Kassar is a man of many faces," the judge said. "It is a tragedy that a person of his intelligence has spent so much of his life in activities that certainly weren't calculated to advance the human race."
A federal jury convicted the men of conspiring to provide aid and equipment to a terrorist organization, conspiring to kill U.S. soldiers, conspiring to acquire and export anti-aircraft missiles and money laundering. The charges required a mandatory minimum sentence of at least 25 years in prison. Rakoff said sentencing guidelines called for a life sentence for both defendants, but the U.S. government had agreed when the men were extradited not to seek the maximum sentence.
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