Egyptian Man Gets 25 Years In U.S. Prison In Embassy Bombing Case

An Egyptian man has been sentenced on Friday in New York to 25 years in U.S. prison in connection with the 1998 bombings of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania that killed 224 people. Reutersreport: Adel Abdul Bary, 54, pleaded guilty in September to three counts, including conspiring to murder U.S. citizens abroad, as part of a deal that limited his maximum sentence to 25 years. U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan, who in September briefly considered rejecting the agreement as too lenient, said Bary could be released in approximately eight years after receiving credit for more than 15 years already spent in U.K. and U.S. custody. “You, unlike victims of the embassy bombings, can look forward to rejoining your family and living out your life in freedom,” Kaplan said. Prosecutors said at the time of the plea that Bary, who had initially faced 224 counts of murder and scores of other charges, was not as culpable for the bombings as other members of the al Qaeda conspiracy. His primary role, they said, was that of a “communications facilitator” who disseminated messages from al Qaeda leaders to the public, including claims of responsibility for the embassy bombings. He was not accused of planning the attacks.