‘Millennium bomber’ Ahmed Ressam’s sentence overturned by appeals court
Artist Teresa Malinowski shows Algerian national Ahmed Ressam sitting between lawyer Tom Hillier and an Arabic interpreter on December 22, 1999 at the US Federal Courthouse in Seattle.
A U.S. appeals court on Monday overturned the 22-year prison term of convicted "millennium bomber" Ahmed Ressam, calling the sentence too lenient.
The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeal ruled 7-4 in favor of the government's appeal of the sentence, and sent the case back to a lower court for re-sentencing, The Associated Press reported.
Ressam was arrested in Washington state in 1999 on his way to bomb Los Angeles International Airport. He was convicted of nine criminal counts, according to the AP.
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Ressam had planned the attack to take place on Dec. 31, 1999, Reuters reported.
In its appeal, the government argued that sentencing guidelines called for 65 years to life. The 22-year sentence was twice imposed by a federal judge, the AP reported.
Investigators have said Ressam attended three training camps for Islamic terrorists in Afghanistan between March 1998 and February 1999, according to the AP.
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