Lawyers say Padilla should serve no more than 10 years on terror conviction

0 Comments | AFP, January, 2008

MIAMI (AFP) — Lawyers for US citizen Jose Padilla argued before a US judge Thursday their client should serve no more than 10 years in prison on his conviction of supporting the Al Qaeda terror network.

And in an emotional moment in the Miami courtroom, Padilla's mother said her son, a onetime Chicago gang member who converted to Islam, "is not a monster."

Padilla spent three-and-a-half years in military detention without charge for allegedly plotting to detonate a radioactive bomb in the United States, a claim that did not figure in the indictment when he eventually was put on trial.

Judge Marcia Cooke earlier rejected defense claims that Padilla and two co-conspirators had not committed any actual act of terrorism and said the three could each face prison...