Samir Ait Mohamed, detained in Vancouver, BC

U.S. prosecutors set to dismiss charges
Seek 35-year prison term for ex-informant

American prosecutors plan to drop the charges against two terrorism suspects detained in Canada and Britain since their key witness, Ahmed Ressam, has stopped co-operating.

Samir Ait Mohamed and Abu Doha, who have been fighting extradition to the United States, could soon be released. Both Algerians have been in custody in Vancouver and London respectively since 2001.

Mohamed has been indicted in the United States on two counts of conspiring to commit international terrorism. Ressam, a member of a Montreal Al Qaeda cell, has also alleged Mohamed talked of bombing a Jewish neighbourhood in Canada.

Doha, an alleged terrorist cell leader in London, is accused of conspiring to use weapons of mass destruction in the foiled plot to bomb Los Angeles International Airport around New Year's 2000.

Ressam was convicted in April 2001 of the L.A. airport bomb plot. Three months after his conviction he became an informant for the U.S. government in return for a more lenient sentence. Court records show he provided information on more than 100 individuals worldwide and provided an insider's view of the workings of Al Qaeda.

Ressam will be sentenced Wednesday.

"The government will be forced to dismiss the charges and withdraw the extradition request. That will result in Samir Ait Mohamed, a man who poses a threat to the national security of the United States, Canada and other countries, being free and uncharged notwithstanding the terrorist crimes he is alleged to have committed," writes U.S. State Attorney David Kelley in court documents released yesterday.

"The impact of this country's inability to live up to our commitments to two allies in two separate and important terrorism prosecutions should not be underestimated."

Mohamed is scheduled to have his extradition hearing on June 13, but, writes Kelley, "the government expects to dismiss the case against Mohamed prior to this proceeding."

The documents filed yesterday were in support of the U.S. government's recommendation to sentence Ressam to 35 years. His lawyers are asking for a 12-year sentence.

The judge has to balance the former Montreal resident's initial co-operation with an appropriate punishment for his failed millennium plot.

Ressam's lawyers say the harsh conditions of his solitary confinement in Seattle and the stress of the his interrogation led to his decision to stop co-operating last year.

"His decision to stop co-operating, which constitutes a violation of his co-operation agreement, has serious negative consequences for the United States," Kelley wrote.

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