Va. Man in Capitol Bomb Plot Sentenced to 30 Years
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.