The feds want a Manhattan judge to throw the book at Osama bin Laden’s son-in-law, Sulaiman Abu Ghaith, saying he should be sentenced to life in prison after being convicted by a jury in March of conspiring to kill Americans.
Prosecutors in legal papers Monday also accused Abu Ghaith — the highest-ranking al Qaeda figure to face trial on US soil since the 9/11 attacks — of lying on the witness stand during his trial and having a “complete lack of remorse” after inciting would-be Muslim militants to join al Qaeda’s cause.
In addition, the government is seeking that the former bin Laden mouthpiece’s assets be forfeited and that he be slapped with up to $250,000 in fines when he’s sentenced Sept. 23 before Judge Lewis Kaplan.
Abu Ghaith’s lawyer, Stanley Cohen, is seeking the more lenient sentence of 15 years in prison for his client, in part because he previously served 10 years in an Iranian prison.
In a bizarre appeal for leniency, Cohen earlier this month compared Abu Ghaith’s enlistment in al Qaeda to Mayor de Blasio’s visit to Nicaragua in the 1980s to pal around with the Sandinistas.