"Doogie Howser of Terrorism Cases" Defendant Gets 15 Years Less Than Government Asks For
I've written a lot about the "Doogie Howser of terrorism cases", the Albany, New York sting prosecution of pizza owner Yassin Aref on charges of providing material support to terrorists, because Terry Kindlon, an excellent criminal defense attorney and frequent commenter at TalkLeft, represented him. Terry also filed the first motion in the country in Aref's case challenging the NSA warrantless wiretapping program. (U.S. News Article here in which Terry credits TalkLeft for giving him the idea for the challenge.)
The case is known as the Doogie Howser of Terrorism cases because the Government's terrorism expert has been compared to Doogie.
Aref was convicted at trial and the sentencing range was 30 years to life in prison. The Government asked for 30 years. At sentencing Thursday, the Court sentenced Aref to 15 years.
"Obviously 11-years is a significant sentence, but 11-years is a whole lot better than 30-years, or even life," says Terry Kindlon, Yassin Aref's attorney.
11 years is no walk in the park, yet but for Terry's exceptional advocacy skills, I'm sure it would have been a lot worse. Terry was able to establish to the Judge's satisfaction, that his client wasn't motivated by wanting to help terrorists.
Judge Thomas McAvoy told Hossain, "you submitted to crimes out of greed, not a desire to support terrorism."
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