Filipino in US sentenced to 25 years for terror plots

MANILA, Philippines – A district court in the United States sentenced a Filipino citizen residing in California to 25 years in federal prison for terror plots, local news wire City News Service reported.

Ralph Kenneth DeLeon, 26, of Ontario City in California was convicted on February 23 (February 24 in Manila) along with 36-year-old Sohiel Omar Kabir of Pomona.

Kabir was also found guilty of two counts of conspiring to provide material support to a “foreign terrorist organization and conspiracy to receive training from al-Qaeda.”

DeLeon, on the other hand, was convicted by the same jury, of conspiring to “murder or maim members of the armed services overseas and conspiring to kill employees of the United States.”

DeLeon’s family migrated from Laguna, Philippines, to the US in 2002. He is a permanent US resident, but remains a Filipino citizen with a valid Philippine passport.

FBI raided DeLeon’s home and confiscated his computer, clothes, and documents, among other things, as part of the investigation when he was first arrested in 2012.

A report in local newspaper The Sun said Kabir and DeLeon were described as “harmless” by their attorneys. They emphasized that while the two hung out at hookah bars and smoked marijuana, the two were engaged in nothing more than “big talk.”

But the prosecution responded that the two were “dead-set” on their plan that DeLeon even dropped out of Cal State San Bernandino, where he was studying business administration, when he was only one term away from graduating and sold his car to be able to travel to Afghanistan and meet with other terrorists in the region.

In a previous report by ABS-CBN, DeLeon was described as a popular kid, student leader, and excelled in sports.

US District Judge Virginia Phillips said during sentencing, that “it wasn’t just talk.” She added: “We’ve seen all too often how little it takes for young men to cause havoc and loss of life. Just because his plan didn’t come to fruition, it doesn’t reduce the seriousness of what he intended to do.”

DeLeon’s attorney David Thomas told ABS-CBN that he is planning to file an appeal. – Rappler.com