Babar Ahmad, a British computer engineer portrayed by US prosecutors as a pioneer of cyber jihad, has been sentenced to 12 and a half years in prison for channelling material support to Islamic terrorists. The 40-year-old Londoner, who was extradited from Britain in 2012, could be released as early as next spring with good behaviour as he has already spent a decade in detention in the UK and the US, lawyers said. Syed Talha Ahsan,34, a fellow British Muslim who admitted related offences and was extradited with Ahmad, will be freed after being sentenced to an eight-year term - the same period he has already spent in detention since his arrest in London in 2006. Federal prosecutors had called for a 25-year sentence for Ahmad after arguing that helped develop the role of the Internet as a support network for terrorists and could return to the same conduct after he was released. But Judge Janet Hall delivered an unexpectedly lenient by the standards of US terrorism trials and described Ahmad as a good person who she believed posed no threat to the public. She said she had weighed the seriousness of his crime with his good character after reading thousands of letters of support and hearing from British prison officials who described him as an exemplary inmate. The sentence shocked prosecutors and was hailed by his supporters.
Posted on: Thu, 17 Jul 2014 11:03:56 +0000
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