NYC jeweler sentenced in bogus bomb plot

Lying, Trickery, Deceit. And a rather light sentence for attempting to ruin the lives of 5 men while feeding the "Islamofascist threat" hysteria machine.

NYC jeweler sentenced in bogus bomb plot

By SAMUEL MAULL Associated Press Writer
01/16/2008

NEW YORK—A jeweler was sentenced Wednesday to six months in jail and fined $5,000 for falsely reporting that five Arab men were plotting to bomb the subway system, a scheme meant to cause trouble for his former business associates.

The judge, who could have sentenced Rimon Alkatri to seven years in prison, said that only the professionalism of the city's police prevented the men named by the defendant from spending at least a few days in jail.

"I believe your conduct does deserve punishment, does deserve imprisonment," State Supreme Court Justice Maxwell Wiley told Alkatri, 35.

Alkatri also faces deportation to his native Syria as a convicted felon. One of his lawyers, Michael L. Soshnick, argued that a return to that country could be fatal because Alkatri is Jewish.

Alkatri told the court, "I'm sorry for what I did," and he mumbled a few more inaudible sentences before sitting down.

A Manhattan jury convicted Alkatri in November of falsely reporting an incident in the first degree. Prosecutors said Alkatri called the city's SAFE telephone hot line around 8:15 p.m. on May 30, 2006, and told a New York Police Department officer he knew of five men plotting to bomb the subways on July 4, 2006.

Speaking on a prepaid cell phone that he later threw away, Alkatri used words that he thought would get police to act: Arabs, Allah Akbar, terrorists and suicide bombers. He also lied that he was Jose Rodriguez from Israel.

Prosecutors said the false report had the desired effect on Alkatri's targets: Police investigated the men and searched their homes with bomb-sniffing dogs. Nothing suspicious was found.

The five men Alkatri named were former business acquaintances or their associates, prosecutors said.

http://www.denverpost.com/nationworld/ci_7992265?source=email