A US judge sentenced al Qaeda sleeper agent Ali al-Marri to more than eight years in prison on Thursday, rejecting pleas from prosecutors for a much longer jail term. Judge Michael Mihm expressed fears Marri could re-offend but said a "just sentence" must reflect the fact he was designated an "enemy combatant" and forced to spend more than six years in a US Navy brig without charge.
Marri, a 44-year-old dual Saudi-Qatari national, confessed in April to having trained in terrorist camps in Pakistan before being sent to the United States on a mission by September 11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed. "We are defined as a people by how we deal with difficult and unpopular legal issues," Mihm said, before handing down a sentence of eight years and four months at the court in Peoria in the US state of Illinois. Under a plea bargain with federal prosecutors in April, Marri faced up to 15 years in jail.