Benghazi ‘mastermind’ Ahmed Abu Khatallah resentenced to 28 years in prison

Ahmed Abu Khatallah, the Libyan militia leader convicted for his role in the deadly 2012 terrorist attack on the US consulate in Benghazi, was resentenced Thursday to 28 years in prison, despite federal prosecutors seeking at least 60 years to life.

The new sentence comes more than two years after a federal appeals court in Washington, DC, ruled that his original sentence of 22 years was “unreasonably low” and ordered the judge who imposed it to resentence him.

US District Judge Christopher Cooper tacked on six more years to Khatallah’s sentence, saying he did not think the crimes for which he was convicted warranted a substantially higher prison term.

“No matter what I think, the government did not prove the most serious charges in this case,” the judge said as he explained his decision to once again not consider a slew of other charges, including four murder charges, of which Khatallah was acquitted.

At the end of the nearly two-hour-long hearing, Cooper acknowledged the toll the long-running case has had on the families of the victims of the 2012 terror attack that killed the US ambassador to Libya and three others and said that he hoped the sentence does not “detract from their legacy.”

Read more: CNN