( dpa ) - A US federal judge in New York sentenced an al- Qaeda terrorist to life in prison on Friday for plotting to bomb US embassies in Singapore and the Philippines, New York media reported.
Mohammed Mansour Jabarah, a Canadian citizen of Iraqi descent who pleaded guilty in July 2002 to the disrupted plot, was unable to persuade Judge Barbara Jones that his renouncement of terrorism was sufficient grounds to send him home.
Jones said Jabarah had been involved in the "most serious criminal conduct," according to New York's WNBC television channel.
Jabarah told the judge that he was "brainwashed" by extremists and wanted to be sent home where he could live in "love, peace and joy."
"I do not believe in terrorism, violence and killing," he said. "I wanted to become a doctor, an ophthalmologist. I belong to a highly respected family," he said, WNBC reported.
Jones concluded that choosing to join al-Qaeda after a promising middle class upbringing amounted to "a waste of a life that could otherwise have been very productive."