ALEXANDRIA, Va. (AP) — A Virginia man convicted of plotting to detonate a suicide bomb at the U.S Capitol was sentenced Friday to 30 years in prison, the maximum sentence allowed under a plea deal he struck.
Amine El-Khalifi, 29, of Alexandria expressed no remorse for his actions at Friday's sentencing hearing.
"I just want to say that I love Allah. That's it," he told U.S. District Judge James Cacheris.
He was arrested in February in a parking garage near the Capitol, wearing what he thought was an explosive-laden suicide vest. In an undercover sting, agents posing as al-Qaida operatives had supplied him with an inert explosive vest and an inoperable gun.
Under El-Khalifi's guilty plea, the judge could only sentence him to a range from 25 to 30 years.
Public defender Kenneth Troccoli argued for the minimum sentence. He said that El-Khalifi "bore no ill will to the American people."
"His motivation was simply to do what he thought God called him to do," Troccoli said.
Troccoli said his client, an illegal immigrant from Morocco, embarked on a largely self-taught rediscovery of his religion after a misdemeanor assault conviction in 2007. Before that, he had been active in the D.C. club scene, taking drugs and occasionally producing music.
On the Internet, he found videos and propaganda that reinforced extremist views.
The FBI undercover operation gave him the means and the support carry out his perceived religious obligations. El-Khalifi was unwilling to die while in financial debt, and the agents gave him $4,300 to satisfy some overdue rent. And the agents promised to provide "martyrdom payments" to his family of $500 or $1,000 per month after he carried out the suicide attack.
