Federal prosecutors in Miami have appealed the sentences of Jose Padilla and two other men convicted of conspiring to provide “material support” for the global terrorist group Al Qaeda.
Prosecutors announced Friday the filing of their appellate notice with the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in the closely watched terrorism case. Defense lawyers had filed theirs at the beginning of February.
In January, a federal judge rejected prosecutors’ bids for life sentences for Padilla and two co-defendants, saying their support for Islamic extremists abroad did not call for the severe punishment given to the nation’s worst terrorists.
U.S. District Judge Marcia Cooke gave Padilla a prison term of 17 years and 4 months for participating in a South Florida-based conspiracy to aid Muslims in “violent jihad.”
The judge’s decision to grant far below a life sentence was a major disappointment to the Justice Department, which had to authorize the appeal.
Cooke reasoned that Padilla’s crime was not tantamount to the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks or the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing.
Padilla, 37, a U.S. citizen and former Chicago gang member, was accused of training with Al Qaeda, but no evidence at last summer’s trial directly implicated him in any Islamic holy wars abroad.
Cooke condemned his “harsh” treatment as an “enemy combatant” in a Navy brig before his transfer to Miami to face terrorism charges in January 2006. Cooke deducted the time Padilla spent in military custody — about 31/2 years — from his total sentence.
Padilla’s mentor, Adham Amin Hassoun, a Palestinian who had met him at a Ft. Lauderdale mosque in the 1990s, and Hassoun’s colleague, Kifah Wael Jayyousi, a U.S. citizen of Jordanian descent, were sentenced to 15 years and 8 months, and 12 years and 8 months, respectively.
