A self-described official of the Palestine Liberation Organization has been sentenced to the maximum 30 years in prison for planting bombs at three Israeli sites in New York 20 years ago.
In a two-hour statement in federal court in Brooklyn on April 15, Khaled el-Mohammed Jassem contended that he had been framed by the Israeli and United States governments and abandoned by the PLO after his arrest in Italy in 1991.
But U.S. District Judge Jack Weinstein concluded that Jassem deserved the sentence for “dangerous terrorist activities” that “could have killed and maimed hundreds, caused large fires and terrorized thousands.”
The judge added that Jassem’s sentence should make clear to “prospective terrorists that they are not welcome to bomb and kill in this country.”
Jassem will be eligible for parole after 10 years.
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