Sentence of two dozen years in terror case

A high-profile terror sentencing took place yesterday in California.  This Sacramento Bee article provides these details:

Hamid Hayat, a 25-year-old cherry packer from Lodi with a seventh-grade education, was sentenced Monday in Sacramento federal court to 24 years in prison for providing material support to terrorists and making false statements to hide his conduct.

On April 25, 2006, a jury found Hayat, who was born in Stockton but has lived nearly half his life with relatives in Pakistan, guilty of undergoing terrorist training in Pakistan and returning to Lodi prepared to wage violent jihad — or holy war — against fellow U.S. citizens. He also was found guilty of lying to conceal the training and his terrorist intent when initially questioned by FBI agents….

The prison term is 11 years less than the 35 sought by the government and recommended by a probation officer. On the other hand, it is nine years more than the defense’s request for 15, the statutory maximum for the material-support count.