Lawyers of Alleged Hizbullah Backer Call for Cutting 155-year Term
A North Carolina man who has spent a decade in prison for allegedly aiding Hizbullah is trying to get his 155-year sentence cut, The Charlotte Observer reported.
Mohammed Hammoud, who was convicted in 2002 of conspiring to provide material support to a “terrorist organization” and 13 other crimes, will ask a U.S. judge at a hearing Wednesday to reduce his sentence to time served, or at least no more than 15 years.
Prosecutors say that his cell smuggled cigarettes from North Carolina to Michigan and sent the illegal proceeds to Lebanon to finance Hizbullah.
"The overwhelming evidence here is that Mr. Hammoud's original sentence is a miscarriage of justice," attorneys James McLoughlin and Stanley Cohen argued in court documents.
But Assistant U.S. Attorneys David Brown and Craig Randall wrote, "Defendant was motivated by fanatical terrorist ideology and, thus, represents a serious future danger to society.”
“Any sentence less than life imprisonment will provide defendant the opportunity and the motivation to carry out acts of violence," they said.
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