From CNN, with thanks to Jeffrey Imm and RB:
PARIS: A French court on Tuesday handed the maximum 10-year sentence to the alleged organizer of a plot to send a suicide bomber into the U.S. Embassy in Paris.Five other defendants in the closely watched case were sentenced to prison terms ranging from one year to nine years imprisonment.
Djamel Beghal, 39, and the others were charged with "criminal association in relation with a terrorist enterprise," a broad accusation commonly used in terrorism cases in France that allowed for a maximum 10-year sentence.
The defendants all denied any connection to a terror plot, and Beghal
testified that his confession of a plan to send a suicide bomber into the U.S. Embassy was obtained under torture after his arrest in July 2001 in Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates. He was extradited to France that September.
Click here for the Al-Qaeda training manual (thanks to Carolyn2) that advises arrested jihadists to claim they were tortured.
The investigation was opened September 10, 2001 -- a day before the terror attacks in the United States -- and involved several European countries....Asked if he considered himself a radical, Beghal testified: "I am a Muslim and Muslim to the hilt."
Beghal has a Tariq Ramadan connection.
"To the hilt"? Interesting choice of words!
A 10 year maximum sentence doesn't seem long enough for someone plotting or carrying out a terrorist attack. Does anyone think people like this will be reformed by relatively short term incarceration presumably followed by unconditional release?