Algerian to Be Sentenced in LAX Millennium Bomb Plot

Ahmed Ressam, convicted of plotting to bomb Los Angeles International Airport on the eve of the millennium, is to be sentenced April 27 in a hearing that has been repeatedly delayed to ensure his cooperation in other terrorism cases.

The date is set “in stone,” federal prosecutor Mark Bartlett said Thursday.

Ressam, an Algerian national, was caught smuggling explosives into the United States through Port Angeles, Wash., in December 1999. He was convicted in April 2001 of nine charges, including terrorist conspiracy.

He faced up to 130 years in prison but cut a deal with the Justice Department and began cooperating with authorities in exchange for a 27-year prison sentence. U.S. District Judge John Coughenour called the information he provided to the government “startlingly helpful.”

Ressam’s testimony helped convict Mokhtar Haouari of supplying fake identification and cash for the millennium bomb plot. Haouari was sentenced in New York to 24 years in prison.

In December 2002, Ressam met with German justice officials who questioned him about Al Qaeda for the trial of a Moroccan charged with supporting the Sept. 11 terrorist hijackers.

Mounir Motassadeq was convicted in February 2003 and sentenced to 15 years in prison.

Ressam’s lawyers have long said that he has relayed all the information he had concerning terrorist operations, and that he wants to get the sentencing done and begin his prison term.