Disagreement Over Man’s Intent in Bomb Plot Delays Sentencing
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Version 0 of 1. In July 2011, Minh Quang Pham, an operative for Al Qaeda in Yemen who had secretly left Britain to train with the group, flew back home, prepared to carry out a bombing at Heathrow Airport near London, United States prosecutors have said. Mr. Pham never carried out the attack, but his commitment to do so has become a sticking point in his sentencing on terrorism-related charges, which was to have taken place on Monday in Federal District Court in Manhattan. After the hearing began, the judge, Alison J. Nathan, said that she would not sentence Mr. Pham immediately, after it became clear that his lawyer and prosecutors were in sharp disagreement over Mr. Pham’s intent in the airport plot. His intent is important because it is likely to influence the sentence that Judge Nathan imposes on Mr. Pham, 33. Prosecutors have suggested that he receive a 50-year sentence, while his lawyer has requested 30 years, the minimum for which he is eligible. He could face up to life in prison. Mr. Pham was arrested by the British authorities in December 2011, and he was extradited to the United States last year. He pleaded guilty in January. In recently filed court papers, prosecutors noted that Mr. Pham, after being brought to the United States, admitted under F.B.I. questioning that while he was in Yemen with the group, known as Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, or A.Q.A.P., he approached Anwar al-Awlaki, a radical American-born cleric who had become the group’s leading English-language propagandist, and offered to conduct a suicide attack and “sacrifice himself” when he returned to Britain. “In Yemen, Pham showed that his commitment to A.Q.A.P.’s deadly agenda was absolute,” prosecutors wrote in a memorandum to the judge, citing Mr. Pham’s training with the group, his decision to swear an oath of allegiance to it, and his offer “to martyr himself” for its cause. But Mr. Pham, writing to the judge, denied that he intended to carry out the bombing and said that he agreed to it only in order leave Yemen. He “was willing to accept any plot to go home,” he wrote. In court on Monday, Mr. Pham’s lawyer, Bobbi C. Sternheim, said the fact that her client remained free in Britain for months after his return without engaging in violence showed he did not intend to carry out the bombing. But a prosecutor, Anna M. Skotko, said that Mr. Pham had been searched and questioned when he arrived at Heathrow and “knew he was under surveillance.” Judge Nathan said she was leaning toward siding with the government’s position, but she offered to hold a hearing for each side to present evidence and testimony on the issue. Ms. Sternheim said that she would let the court know whether Mr. Pham wanted such a hearing before a sentencing is held. |