NEW YORK: A defence lawyer for the son-in-law of Osama bin Laden convicted on terrorism-related charges in New York federal court said yesterday that his client should serve no more than 15 years in prison.
Kuwaiti-born Suleiman Abu Ghaith, 48, faces up to life behind bars after a jury convicted him in March of conspiring to kill Americans, conspiring to provide material support for terrorists, and providing such support.
Prosecutors accused Abu Ghaith of serving as an Al Qaeda mouthpiece, recording inflammatory videos that the group used in recruiting.
Abu Ghaith’s lawyer, Stanley Cohen, argued in a court filing that his client was convicted solely on the basis of speech.
“The defendant faces the harshest of penalties for talk — and only talk — which is at times zealous, pious and devout; at other times intemperate; at still others, offensive to core values of humanity,” Cohen wrote.
“In this sense, he was not unlike an outrageous daytime ‘shock-radio’ host, or a World War II radio propagandist for a losing ideology.”
REUTERS
