American court sentences al-Anoudi for 23 year imprisonment over dealings with Libya
Libya-USA, Politics, 10/16/2004

An American federal court on Friday sentenced the prominent American Islamic activists Abdul Rahman al-Amoudi to 23 year imprisonment after he was convicted of accusations on illegal financial dealings with Libya, disclosed an alleged Libyan conspiracy to assassinate the Saudi crown prince Abdullah Bin Abdul Aziz.

Al-Amoudi who was born in Eritrea and got the American citizenship in 1996 -- gave his apology before the chief judge in Alexandria court in Virginia who read the sentence which stated the utmost penalty permitted, according to an agreement al-Amoudi finalized with the American government. He said "I express my regret over being involved in anything violating the law had made."

The Islamist activist admitted in the course of the agreement in July this year that he is guilty in three accusations covered of receiving $ 340,000 in cash from a Libyan organization in an "illegal way," trying to send the sum abroad as well as violating the American immigration and taxation law.

Al-Amoudi -- who presided over the Islamic-American council and the American-Islamic federation -- said in the documents of the court which were enclosed with the agreement that he had played a role in an alleged Libyan conspiracy in 2003 to assassinate the Saudi crown prince.

The documents showed that al-Amoudi admitted of making contacts with Saudi opposition figures in London on behalf of officials in the Libyan government who wanted from them to kill the Saudi crown prince.

Al-Amoudi said in the documents that a Libyan official summoned him to Tripoli and expressed to him his regret over the way the Saudi crown prince dealt with the Libyan leader al-Qathafi at the Arab summit which was held in March, 2003.

The documents said that the Libyan leader notified al-Amoudi that he wants to punish the Saudis and to create chaos and "problems" in the Kingdom, and in this context al-Amoudi met with several officials in Libya and he was told to work for arranging Saudi opposition to assassinate crown prince Abdullah.

In this regard, al-Amoudi made contacts with at least two Saudi opposition members in London and gave them thousands of dollars in cash.

Officials in the FBI said that al-Amoudi told them that the conspiracy won the consent of Qathafi, while the Libyan leader was working to improve the relations with the USA. But Libya strongly denies these accusations.

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