Salah seeks Libby deal

By · July 6, 2007

A Chicago man convicted on a Hamas-related charge is trying to capitalize on Lewis “Scooter” Libby’s commuted sentence.Mohammed Salah, 57, was convicted of obstruction of justice and is facing sentencing next week in Chicago. In the same trial Salah was cleared of racketeering charges in support of Hamas terrorist operations in Israel and the Palestinian territories.The maximum punishment for one count of obstruction is 10 years, but prosecutors are seeking a 22-year sentence based on evidence presented during trail they believe proves Salah was part of a terrorist conspiracy, reported the New York Sun. “To sentence Mr. Salah on the basis of non-relevant, state, and acquitted conduct would most assuredly result in an unreasonable sentence and promote disrespect for the law,” said Salah’s defense attorney, Michael Deutsch. President Bush pointed similarly to “allegations never presented to the jury” this week in his reasoning for commuting the 30-month sentence for Libby, a former top aide to Vice President Dick Cheney convicted for obstructing justice into the investigation of the leak of the name Valerie Plame, a covert CIA agent married to an Iraq war critic who had been targeted in a White House retaliation scheme.Although the president’s decision sets no legal precedent, Deutsch believes Bush’s commutation to be relevant because the allegations the prosecution wants the judge to consider “were presented to a jury and he was acquitted.”