NY judge sentences bin Laden secretary to life
A former personal secretary to Osama bin Laden got a strong rebuke from a judge on Tuesday as he was sentenced to life in prison for a second time after claiming the Sept. 11 attacks and Superstorm Sandy were "God's punishment" for injustice by the United States against him and others, AP reported.
"You, sir, in my judgment, are a committed terrorist who has betrayed his country," U.S. District Judge Lewis A. Kaplan told Wadih El-Hage after listening to the claims of the Lebanese-born man who became a U.S. citizen.
El-Hage said he was treated unjustly before his 2001 conviction in the August 1998 bombings of two U.S. embassies in Africa. The attacks killed 224 people, including a dozen Americans.
The judge said a life sentence was necessary in part because El-Hage, 52, was "quite likely to engage in or further terrorist activities against this country in this district until your last breath, if you were ever released." He also re-imposed a $33.8 million restitution order, saying $7 million would go to the families of victims and the rest to the U.S. government.
El-Hage was convicted in 2001 of conspiracy and other charges and was sentenced to life in prison. A federal appeals court in Manhattan ordered a resentencing after El-Hage argued that the federal sentencing guidelines under which he was sentenced were no longer mandatory.