COLUMBUS, Ohio — A Somali immigrant was sentenced to 10 years in prison Tuesday for plotting to blow up an Ohio shopping mall with a man later convicted of being an al-Qaeda terrorist.
Nuradin Abdi, a cellphone salesman before his arrest, pleaded guilty in July to conspiring to provide material support for terrorists. He will be deported to Somalia after serving the federal sentence.
In a 20-minute statement to the court, Abdi’s attorney, Mahir Sherif, said his client apologized to the people of the United States, the people of Ohio and the Muslim community. He said Abdi regretted that his conviction might lead to problems for other Muslims.
“He apologizes for the things he thought about and the things he talked about and the crimes he pleaded guilty to,” Sherif said. “He wants to make it very, very clear that he does not hate America.”
Prosecutors said Abdi made threatening comments about the unspecified shopping mall during a meeting with two other suspected terrorists on Aug. 8, 2002, at a coffee shop in suburban Columbus.
Abdi and the two “could attack the mall with a bomb,” Abdi told his friends as they sipped refreshments at the coffee shop, according to court documents.
One of the men with Abdi that day was Iyman Faris, who pleaded guilty in May 2003 to providing material support for terrorism. The Pakistani immigrant was convicted of plotting to destroy the Brooklyn Bridge and sentenced to 20 years in prison.
The third man alleged to be at the meeting is Christopher Paul, a U.S. citizen who grew up in suburban Columbus. He was charged in April with plotting to bomb European tourist resorts as well as overseas U.S. military bases, and his trial is scheduled for January 2009.
The plot was never carried out, and Sherif has maintained that Abdi was guilty at most of ranting about the United States’ handling of the war in Afghanistan.
