Two more jailed for Sears Tower terror bombing plot

Patrick Abraham, a 30-year-old from Haiti, who was seen as the right-hand man of the leader of the 2006 conspiracy, was jailed for nine years, while Stanley Phanor, 34, received an eight-year sentence. Like the two brothers linked to the same group and jailed for six and seven years on Wednesday, the sentences were far less than the steeper terms of up to 50 years in prison sought by prosecutors.

A U.S. jury in May convicted the group — members of the so-called Liberty Five, named after the Miami neighborhood of Liberty City where they lived — of seeking to contact al-Qaida and plot a series of attacks, including blowing up the Sears Tower.

The Chicago landmark, once the world's tallest building, has since been renamed the Willis Tower. The five were also convicted of plotting attacks on FBI buildings in the hope of bringing down the U.S. government.

It was the third trial for the group, which originally consisted of seven defendants. Two mistrials were declared, and two of the men were acquitted. Alleged leader Narseal Batiste, 35, is accused of planning the attacks with a supposed member of al-Qaida, who was in fact an FBI mole.

Batiste has claimed he did not intend to carry out the attacks, but was attempting to swindle his interlocutor out of US$50,000 allegedly for financing. Batiste is to be sentenced Friday, and prosecutors are seeking a prison sentence of 70 years.

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