Life sentence for Russell Defreitas in JFK bomb plot

17 February 2011 Last updated at 20:48 GMT

Life sentence for Russell Defreitas in JFK bomb plot

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A man convicted of potting to blow up fuel tanks at New York's JFK Airport has been sentenced to life in prison.

Former cargo handler Russell Defreitas, 67, had hoped the act would rival the 9/11 terror attacks, prosecutors said.

His co-defendant, Abdul Kadir, a former member of Guyana's parliament, was given the same sentence in December.

The pair were convicted in August. Defreitas's defence attorneys hoped for a lesser sentence, arguing he had been "egged on" by a government informant.

His "stories about how they would accomplish the plot became more and more ridiculous until they finally rose to the level of the absurd, with Mr Defreitas' scheme to send 'ninjas' in to attack the airport", the defence team said.

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ENDS

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