Canadian guilty of terror crime in U.S. to be deported home

A Somalian-born Canadian was sentenced to nearly eight years in prison on a terror-related charge Thursday by a judge in Minneapolis, Minn.

Mohammed Abdullah Warsame, 35, had pleaded guilty to conspiracy to provide support to al-Qaeda.

With credit for time already spent in custody, Warsame will spend about a year in prison and then be deported to Canada. He had lived in Toronto from 1991 on, but most recently attended school in Minneapolis.

The 5½ years he has spent awaiting trial in custody at a maximum-security prison in Minnesota is the longest anyone in the continental United States has served in over 200 years, according to his lawyer.

Prosecutors had asked U.S. District John R. Tunheim for a longer prison sentence than the 92 months he received.

In a plea agreement, he admitted to helping al-Qaeda beginning in 2000. Authorities said he attended al-Qaeda training camps, dined with Osama bin Laden and fought with the Taliban.

U.S. authorities did not comment on reports of links between Warsame and Zacarias Moussaoui, who was also arrested in Minnesota and is the only person convicted in the United States in connection with the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks.