Judge Kaplan Accepts Adel Abdul Bary Guilty Plea
Published by The Lawfare Institute
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A federal judge in Manhattan said on Tuesday that he would accept a guilty plea from a terrorism defendant who would face a maximum 25-year prison sentence for charges stemming from Al Qaeda’s 1998 conspiracy to bomb two United States Embassies in East Africa.
The judge, Lewis A. Kaplan of Federal District Court, had recently questioned the wisdom of a deal in which prosecutors allowed the defendant, Adel Abdul Bary, 54, to plead guilty to three counts that carried the maximum 25-year sentence.
Mr. Bary, who was arrested in Britain in 1999 and brought to the United States in 2012, could spend less time in prison if credited with the roughly 15 years he has already served, largely during his unsuccessful extradition battle.