Convicted JFK Airport plotter gets 15 years

Abdel Nur, one of three men convicted so far in the Guyanese-based plot to blow up fuel pipelines at Kennedy Airport in 2007, was sentenced to 15 years in prison Thursday in federal court in Brooklyn.

Nur, 60, also known as Compton Eversley, pleaded guilty in advance of the trial last June to the lesser offense of providing material support to the plot. He received the maximum sentence on that charge.

Co-defendants Russell DeFreitas, 67, the plot mastermind from Brooklyn who had worked as a cargo loader at Kennedy, and Abdul Kadir, 59, a former Guyanese legislator, were convicted of conspiracy after going to trial.

Kadir received a life sentence. DeFreitas is to be sentenced Feb. 17.

The plotters, whose ring was infiltrated by an FBI informant, were hoping to damage the United States economically by attacking fuel tanks and igniting the Buckeye Pipeline, which serves Kennedy. But evidence at trial indicated the group never had a plausible plan for carrying out that goal.

Nur had been recruited to travel to Trinidad in late 2006 to seek financing for the plot from the leader of Jamaat al Muslimeen, a Muslim extremist group.

After pleading guilty in June, Nur Thursday aroused the ire of U.S. District Court Judge Dora Irizarry when he appeared to deny his guilt in a long, rambling statement.

Reminding him of the evidence accumulated at trial, Irizarry called his claims "absurd" and said, "The defendant has already been given a substantial break, given that the maximum of 15 years is half of the low end of the sentencing guidelines range."

Nur is suffering from a tumor in his lung. Irizarry said an application for early release can be submitted by the Bureau of Prisons if his death in prison becomes imminent.