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Gang-to-al-Qaeda conspirator may face life in prison

Prosecutors on Friday called for a life sentence against US citizen Jose Padilla, claiming the former Chicago gang member convicted of supporting the al-Qaeda network was a violent sociopath.

Pointing to numerous convictions for serious crimes, including murder at the age of 14, government lawyer Brian Frazier told the US court that from an early age, Padilla was "a terrorist diamond in the rough."

Frazier insisted that while Padilla left his life as a gang member behind, he did not give up violence when he converted to Islam in the early 1990s.

"Islam was just a vehicle to continue this violent activity with a cloak of respectability," Frazier said at a sentencing hearing in Miami.

He insisted federal Judge Marcia Cooke should put Padilla and co-conspirators Adham Amin Hassoun and Kifah Wael Jayyousi behind bars for the rest of their lives.

All three were convicted in August of supporting al-Qaeda and plotting to murder, maim or kidnap people in Afghanistan and other countries from 1993 to 2001.

Padilla, 37, was initially accused of plotting to detonate a radioactive bomb in the US, but the claim was no longer mentioned when he went on trial after spending three-and-a-half years in military detention without charges.

Frazier painted Padilla as "an extraordinarily violent person, sociopathic, who has never been rehabilitated."

He dismissed defense claims that the trio deserved leniency because there was no evidence they were involved in any violent acts.

"This is a long-range conspiracy, it is a wide-ranging conspiracy," said Frazier, adding that the ramifications extended to hostage-taking in Chechnya, assassinations in Lebanon and beheadings in Algeria.

The defense lawyers insist the three had nothing to do with al-Qaeda, but sought to help Muslims in conflict areas.

The main piece of evidence against Padilla is a form he signed in 2000 to join a terrorist training camp in Afghanistan. The prosecution claimed on Friday there was also evidence Padilla had "graduated" from the camp.

The government claims Jayyousi and Hassoun recruited Padilla and other potential mujahidin fighters.

Padilla was arrested in May 2002 at Chicago's O'Hare airport after returning from Egypt and was taken to a US navy prison in South Carolina.

US authorities justified his detention without charge saying he was an "enemy combatant" who allegedly planned to detonate a radioactive bomb in the US.

Padilla was transferred to the civilian courts in 2005 as his lawyers prepared to challenge his military detention before the Supreme Court. His indictment made no mention of the so-called "dirty bomb" plot.
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