Lawyers: Al-Qaida conspirator transformed by brig

PEORIA -- Attorneys for an admitted al-Qaida conspirator argued Tuesday that he should be given credit during sentencing for the more than five years he spent at a U.S. Navy brig without being charged.

In paperwork filed in U.S. District Court in Peoria, attorneys for 44-year-old Ali al-Marri said the time he spent behind bars at the South Carolina brig transformed him in a way that makes it unlikely he will break the law.

Al-Marri, arrested while a student at Bradley University in Illinois in 2001, was imprisoned when his father died and missed watching his children grow up, according to the court documents.

"Mr. al-Marri has already been severely punished, beyond what our nation stands for and tolerates as a matter of respect for the law, and his extraordinary transformation ... leaves one comfortable in the knowledge that he will not act and will never even agree to act in a way that violates the law or would endanger American citizens," his attorneys wrote.

Al-Marri, a legal U.S. resident from Qatar, pleaded guilty in April to conspiring to provide support to a foreign terrorist organization. The Bush administration declared al-Marri an "enemy combatant" in 2003 and held him without charges for more than five years at the Navy brig. He was charged and sent back to Illinois for trial early this year.

Prosecutors have said al-Marri should receive the maximum 15-year sentence. Any consideration granted to him because he was detained at the brig would amount to credit for helping wage war on the U.S., they wrote in court documents filed earlier this month.

"The fact that the defendant is not only guilty of a criminal offense but was also part of enemy forces with whom we are at war, should not be a basis for granting him a lesser criminal sentence," they wrote.

Al-Marri is scheduled to be sentenced later this month.