A former aide to Osama bin Laden who has been cooperating with the government for 15 years wants to be sentenced as soon as possible, a possible breach of his agreement with federal prosecutors, the New York Times reported Tuesday.
A lawyer for Jamal Ahmed al-Fadl told a federal judge in Manhattan that his client is worried his six children would be sent back to Sudan where they would “certainly be killed by the people he has cooperated against.” Federal prosecutors said they still may need al-Fadl to testify during the trials of two al-Qaeda defendants scheduled for the fall. Al-Fadl pleaded guilty in 1997 and has been in witness protection ever since.
It was not clear how being sentenced soon would affect al-Fadl’s concerns about his children or whether there was anything that specifically triggered his concerns about their future.
