By ANDREW WELSH-HUGGINS
Associated Press Writer
Nearly six years after the government accused three men of plotting terrorist bombings while sipping refreshments at a suburban Columbus coffee shop, a federal judge was expected to sentence the last of them to a 20-year prison term.
American-born Christopher Paul was to be sentenced Thursday by U.S. District Court Judge Gregory Frost after pleading guilty in June to one count of conspiracy to use a weapon of mass destruction in terrorist attacks.
Paul, 44, was accused of joining al-Qaida in the early 1990s and helping teach fellow Muslim extremists how to bomb U.S. and European targets. Prosecutors agreed to drop charges of providing material support to terrorists and conspiracy to provide support to terrorists.
The Justice Department accused Paul and two other men of discussing terrorist attacks during an August 2002 meeting at the Caribou Cafe coffee shop in Upper Arlington.
The other two also pleaded guilty: Nuradin Abdi in 2007 in connection with an alleged plot to blow up an Ohio shopping mall, and Iyman Faris in 2003 in connection with an alleged plot to destroy the Brooklyn Bridge.
The government won't say whether the case is closed.
Paul grew up in the Columbus suburb of Worthington. He was one of a handful of blacks at his high school, where he competed in gymnastics and was known as a friendly, cooperative and polite student who was never in trouble.
He spent a year at Ohio State as an engineering major, then embarked on a sinister career, according to the government.
An FBI statement read at Paul's plea hearing said Paul, an Islamic convert, joined al-Qaida after traveling to Afghanistan in the early 1990s and fought alongside mujahadeen battling Afghanistan's post-Soviet Marxist government.
The FBI said Paul also tried to recruit other individuals in Columbus to join a holy warrior group and trained members of an alleged terrorist cell in Germany knowing the group was plotting to bomb American tourists and overseas U.S. facilities such as embassies.
The government didn't say if any attacks were carried out.
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