Millennium bomber’s sentence thrown out

SAN FRANCISCO – A federal appeals court on Friday threw out for a second time the 22-year prison sentence of an Algerian man convicted of plotting to blow up Los Angeles International Airport at the height of the millennium celebrations.

The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals challenged a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that Ahmed Ressam should serve time for carrying explosives in his car as part of his penalty for lying to border agents when he crossed the U.S.-Canadian border into Washington state in 1999.

Because the explosives charge accounted for 10 years of the sentence, the San Francisco-based appeals court ordered that Ressam’s sentence be vacated and recalculated.

Ressam was initially convicted of nine counts, but the appeals court had overturned a count of carrying explosives during the commission of another serious crime. The appeals court said the law required proof that the explosives were carried “in relation to” the felony, which in Ressam’s case was lying on a U.S. Customs form that he was a Canadian citizen.

The government sought to reverse the appeals court decision, arguing that the ruling could make it harder to prosecute terrorists. The Supreme Court in March upheld the explosives charge, ruling 8-1 that the aggravating circumstance was obviously related to Ressam’s plot to bomb the airport.

Justice Department spokeswoman Laura Sweeney said her agency will review the court’s decision but wasn’t sure if the issue could go back to the Supreme Court. A call to Seattle public defender Thomas Hillier, who represented Ressam, was not immediately returned Friday afternoon.

Ressam was captured at Port Angeles, Wash., after a customs officer became suspicious, searched his vehicle and found 124 pounds of explosives in the trunk.

He was convicted of an act of terrorism transcending a national boundary, placing explosives in proximity to the ferry terminal, posses0sing false identification, using a false name, falsely identifying himself on customs declaration forms and smuggling and transporting explosives.