A federal appeals court has upheld the life sentence of an Iraqi man who pleaded guilty to conspiring to send cash and weapons to al-Qaeda in Iraq in 2010 and 2011.
The US 6th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled today that there wasn't any government misconduct in the case of 26-year-old Mohanad Shareef Hammadi.
Judge Karen Nelson Moore concluded that the government presented Hammadi with an opportunity to commit a crime and he took it.
A co-defendant, 32-year-old Waad Ramadan Alwan, received a 40-year sentence.
Hammadi and Alwan pleaded guilty to conspiring to ship machine guns and shoulder-fired missiles to al-Qaeda in Iraq. Prosecutors said the two were working with an informant.
Both were arrested in May 2011. Hammadi is in a maximum-security prison in Colorado.
