The Latest: Somali pleads: ‘Please don’t hate us’
The Latest on the sentencing of three militia members convicted in a plot to blow up a mosque and apartments housing Somali immigrants (all times local):
10 a.m.
Somali immigrants targeted in a foiled plot to blow up their mosque and apartments in southwest Kansas told a judge through video testimony that they are still scared.
Prosecutors played five video clips of the Somalis at the sentencing Friday of Patrick Stein, Gavin Wright and Curtis Allen. The three militia members were convicted last year of plotting the attack in Garden City for the day after the 2016 presidential election.
In one video, Ifrah Farah pleaded: “Please don’t kill us. Please don’t hate us. We can’t hurt you.”
Garden City police Chief Michael Utz asked the judge to send a strong message that this type of behavior will not be condoned.
Prosecutors are seeking life terms. The men are asking for shorter terms of 15 years, 10 years and time served.
The plot was thwarted after another militia member tipped off authorities.
___
12:01 a.m.
Three militia men could face life in prison for a foiled plot to blow up a mosque and apartments housing Somali immigrants in Kansas.
A federal judge will sentence Patrick Stein, Gavin Wright and Curtis Allen on Friday. The men were convicted last year of plotting the attack in Garden City for the day after the 2016 presidential election. The meatpacking town is about 220 miles (354 kilometers) west of Wichita.
Prosecutors are seeking life terms. Stein is seeking a 15-year sentence, Allen 10 years, and Wright is asking for “time served.” All three have been imprisoned since October 2016.
They were convicted of conspiracy to use a weapon of mass destruction and conspiracy against civil rights. Wright was also convicted of lying to the FBI.
