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NEW YORK — A Canadian who admitted plotting to bomb U.S. embassies in Singapore and the Philippines was sentenced yesterday to life in prison after telling the court he had been “brainwashed” by al-Qaeda.
Mohammed Mansour Jabarah, a Canadian citizen of Iraqi descent, was sentenced by a federal judge after pleading guilty in July, 2002, for his role in the disrupted bomb plots on orders from al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.
He initially co-operated with U.S. authorities but the relationship soured and he grew to mistrust them during the four years he was held in prison.
He was sentenced without a trial, based on his initial guilty plea. Court documents on the secret case were only unsealed shortly before the sentencing.
“I do not believe in terrorism, violence and killing,” Mr. Jabarah, 25, told U.S District Judge Barbara Jones, saying he had been a “naive youth” who was indoctrinated by Mr. bin Laden and other al-Qaeda leaders.
“I was very unfortunately brainwashed,” he said. “I was very sadly deceived by them and they exploited and used me maliciously.”
The judge, noting that “actions speak louder than words,” said although Mr. Jabarah had denounced al-Qaeda and terrorism, he was the moving force in the embassy plots.
“That was a decision that had to be made knowingly and willfully and cannot be mitigated” by arguing “you were duped into believing somehow killing innocent people could be right,” she said.
Mr. Jabarah admitted he swore loyalty in person to Mr. bin Laden in May of 2001, and received instructions from accused Sept. 11 mastermind Khalid Shaikh Mohammed to attack U.S. and Israeli embassies in the Philippines.
They later shifted the target to the U.S. embassy in Singapore and acquired surveillance videos and explosives.
Prosecutors said Mr. Jabarah was a liaison between al-Qaeda and the Jemaah Islamiyah militant network in Southeast Asia, which has been blamed for attacks that have killed hundreds of civilians.
Wearing a brown-knit skull cap on shoulder-length hair, Mr. Jabarah had asked the judge to return him to his parents so he could take up studies in ophthalmology. He showed no emotion as he left the courtroom.
After the bomb plot was exposed by Singaporean authorities, Mr. Jabarah was arrested in Oman in early 2002 and deported to Canada. He was transferred to the United States and held in safe houses and then in a jail cell.
At first Mr. Jabarah co-operated with U.S. authorities, but prosecutors said he changed after a childhood friend was killed trying to attack U.S. Marines in Kuwait.
They said Mr. Jabarah vowed revenge and planned to kill FBI agents and prosecutors assigned to his case, hiding steak knives and bomb-making instructions. “If they release me … then I will kill them until I am killed,” they quoted him as writing in a diary. He was moved to jail.
