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HOUSTON - A US citizen has been sentenced to 10 years in prison, the maximum sentence possible, for training with al Qaeda militants in Somalia in 2006.
Daniel Maldonado, 28, stood quietly in handcuffs with a chain around his waist as US Judge Gray Miller sentenced him. Maldonado earlier pleaded guilty to a charge of receiving training from foreign terrorists.
He has said he travelled to Somalia last year and received combat training from Islamic forces trying to overthrow the government there, and members of al Qaeda who were helping them.
Maldonado was captured in Kenya in January while trying to flee pro-government forces.
He was handed over to US officials, who returned him to Houston, where he had lived for several months before going abroad.
Maldonado's attorney, Brent Newton, had asked for a reduced sentence, saying Maldonado was a religious pilgrim who found out too late he was training with al Qaeda militants.
"He wants it known he did not intend, nor did he ever intend, to hurt Americans," Newton said.
Assistant US Attorney Gary Cobe said the case sends a message that "people shouldn't get involved with terrorism or training with terrorists."
Maldonado, who grew up in New Hampshire and was a recent convert to Islam, traveled with his wife and three children from Houston to Egypt in 2005, then went to Somalia in 2006.
His wife died of malaria in Africa and his children are in the care of his parents in New Hampshire.
- REUTERS
