A federal appeals court has found that a 28-year prison sentence is too lenient for a Libyan militant who was convicted of terrorism-related charges in the 2012 attacks on U.S. compounds in Benghazi, Libya, that killed Ambassador Chris Stevens and… WASHINGTON– A 28-year prison sentence is too lenient for a Libyan militant who was convicted
A federal appeals court has found that a 28-year prison sentence is too lenient for a Libyan militant who was convicted of terrorism-related charges in the 2012 attacks on U.S. compounds in Benghazi, Libya, that killed Ambassador Chris Stevens and…
WASHINGTON– A 28-year prison sentence is too lenient for a Libyan militant who was convicted of terrorism-related charges in the 2012 attacks on U.S. compounds in Benghazi, Libya, that killed Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans, a federal appeals court ruled Friday.
A three-judge panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit vacated Ahmed Abu Khatallah’s sentence and transferred the case back to the district court in Washington, D.C., for resentencing.
A district court judge initially sentenced Khatallah to 22 years in prison in 2018, but the appeals court rejected it four years ago as a “surprisingly” light punishment under the circumstances. The appeals court panel concluded that the 28-year sentence, which U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper handed down in 2024, remains unreasonably lenient.
D.C. Circuit judges said a 28-year sentence does not reflect the severity of Khatallah’s crimes.
“Khatallah helped prepare and execute a premeditated armed attack on a U.S. diplomatic post. He pressured a Libyan security force not to patrol the Mission during the attack. And his only regret was that the terrorists did not kill all the Americans in the Mission,” the appeal ruling says.
The latest appeal was decided by judges Karen LeCraft Henderson, J. Michelle Childs and Florence Pan.
Khattala was captured in 2014 and convicted of multiple terrorism-related charges after a trial in 2017, but the jury acquitted him of the murder charge.
The Benghazi attack became a point of political tension in Washington. The report by a Republican-led congressional panel blamed Democratic President Barack Obama’s administration, including then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, for security failures and a slow response to the attacks on the complex.
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