US terrorist sentenced to 21 years in prison

Jose Padilla, who was convicted in 2007 of plotting terrorist attacks, has received a longer prison sentence.

US District Judge Marcia Cooke imposed a sentence of 21 years on Tuesday, after an appeals court deemed the former ruling of 17 years too lenient. The court also ruled that his training at a terrorist camp in Afghanistan and his long history with the US justice system, dating back to when he was a member of the Chicago "Latin Kings" gang, earned him a longer sentence as well.

"He is far more sophisticated than an individual convicted of an ordinary street crime," the appeals court said.

Forty-three-year-old Padilla was arrested by the FBI in 2002 on suspicion of working with al Qaeda to set off a dirty bomb.

He was convicted in 2007 on charges of cooperating with the terrorist group.

Rights violations by the US government?

Before his trial, he had been held as an enemy combatant - so deemed by then President George W. Bush - without charges for over three years in a military prison in South Carolina. Before his indictment, his attorneys challenged the right of the government to detain a US citizen without charge. They also tried to have the case dismissed, as Padilla alleges he was tortured and given drugs while in custody.

"Our government has subjected Jose to extraordinarily harsh conditions of solitary confinement and isolation," Padilla's lawyer wrote in court papers.

The case "Rumsfeld v. Padilla" over whether or not the US president had the authority to deem a US citizen arrested far away from a combat zone an enemy combatant without congressional authorization was eventually dismissed in 2006 by the US Supreme Court. An appeal was again rejected by the US' highest court in 2012.

Padilla's detention caused outrage among human rights organizations.

In 2013, Amnesty International published a report on counter-terrorism violations in the US. In it, the rights group stated:

"While Amnesty International believes that members of the Bush administration, including the former President himself, have cases to answer about their involvement in crimes under international law, the problem did not start and finish under that administration. It has its roots in the long-standing reluctance by the USA to properly implement its international legal obligations under various treaties, including, for example, the Convention against Torture."

sb/bw (Reuters, AP)