The ringleader of a group of Miami men convicted of plotting to blow up Chicago's Sears Tower and government offices was sentenced to 13-1/2 years in prison on Friday.
The sentence for Narseal Batiste was handed down by a federal court judge in Miami, who earlier this week announced lighter prison terms ranging from five to eight years for Batiste's four co-conspirators.
The case was touted as a major blow against terrorism and a victory in government efforts to dismantle domestic "sleeper cells" when federal agents arrested the men in Miami's poor and predominantly black Liberty City neighborhood in June 2006.
But the men, accused of conspiring with al-Qaeda to wage holy war, insisted they were innocence and two mistrials were declared before a jury finally found them guilty in May.
Defence lawyers said the alleged plot was concocted by the government and overzealous prosecutors with the help of informants who posed as Middle Eastern contacts.
Batiste, who had faced a maximum of 70 years in prison, got 35 years' probation along with his 162-month prison sentence. He was convicted of conspiring to provide material support to al-Qaeda, conspiring to provide material support to an act of terrorism, conspiring to destroy a building, and conspiring to wage war against the United States.
Authorities conceded at the time of the arrests that the Liberty City men posed no real threat because they had neither contacts with Islamic militant groups nor the means of carrying out attacks.
But Batiste was accused of targeting the Sears Tower, America's tallest skyscraper, for one potential attack. Other possible targets of the plot included Miami's FBI headquarters and a courthouse.
The Sears Tower was renamed the Willis Tower earlier this year after Willis Group Holdings, a London-based insurance broker, consolidated its regional offices there.
