[Gengis Khan]

" If convicted, al-Timimi faces up to life in prison. "

....is that the best you can do to him?..... I mean do you have "fake encounters" in your country?

[piasa]

I'm no lawyer. That's the best that can be done to him under the charges he's been slapped with at the time that article was published. That doesn't mean those are the only charges, or the most serious ones, though. In most terror cases the first charges used to hold the accused in custody are minor ones that are easily proven. Such charges may increase the amount of bail to the point the accused must remain in jail until trial, or convince a judge the accused individual is a 'flight risk' that must be held to prevent escape until trial. That gives the officials the option to expand the charges later as their investigation proceeds, provided they can dig up sufficient additional evidence and witnesses to charge the individual with a capital offense.

Timimi kept his hands free of blood and let underlings do his bidding- that makes it harder to nail him for a capital crime.

You'd think treason charges would be in order but the way the Constitution was set up, trying someone for treason is a very difficult task and few prosecutors will go that route. In our system it's sometimes easier to put an evil man in prison and keep him there if he's charged with some lesser crime than it is to try for the death penalty and risk appeal. for example, Al Capone the gangster was responsible for killing a lot of people but it wasn't a murder charge that ended his career- it was income tax evasion, I believe.

As for Timimi, there may yet be more charges coming if he can be tied to a successful murder conspiracy such as the "beltway shooter" murders.

[piasa]

The mosque where al-Timimi lectured to his associates in the "virginia jihad" cases is the same mosque where the September 11, 2001 hijackers found their contact who helped them obtain fake identification documents and licenses. There may yet be more charges lined up against Timimi on that conspiracy case, too. We just don't know yet.

There is a great web site you might be interested in for following the progress of various terrorist trials. It's called FINDLAW. Another is COURT TV