October 14 2010
A Dutch-Iraqi man convicted in the US for conspiring to kill US soldiers has been released after a judge in Rotterdam reduced his 25 year prison sentence. Wesam al Delaema was the first suspect to face criminal charges in the US for terrorism in Iraq, having been extradited to the US from the Netherlands in 2007. Dutch authorities are entitled to change the sentence according to local standards, and reduced the sentence to 8 years, partially due to the very poor conditions under which Mr. Delaema had been held in the US. The reduction in his sentence meant that Mr. Delaema was immediately released, as he had already spent the equivalent time in prison.
