A federal judge sentenced a Moroccan man to 30 years in prison yesterday after he was caught in an FBI sting operation planning to detonate a bomb in the US Capitol building in Washington, prosecutors said.
Amine El Khalifi, 29, an illegal immigrant who lived in Alexandria, Virginia, was sentenced after pleading guilty in June to attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction. He faced a maximum sentence under the law of life in prison, but prosecutors agreed to 25 to 30 years as part of a plea deal.
“The sentence in this case must be a beacon to those would seek to commit such attacks that, when caught and prosecuted, they will be sentenced to decades,” prosecutors said. – (Reuters)