Man sentenced to 25 years for plot to kill Saudi ambassador to US

A Texas man who admitted to plotting to kill Saudi Arabian Ambassador to the U.S. Adel bin Mohammed Al-Jubeir was sentenced Thursday to 25 years in prison. Manssor Arbabsiar, an American citizen of Iranian origin, had pleaded guilty in October to two conspiracy charges and a murder-for-hire count. Arbabsiar admitted that he was directed by Iranian military officials to travel to Mexico on multiple occasions in 2011 to arrange the assassination attempt on Al-Jubeir, which never occurred. The U.S. government said that Arbabsiar intended to kill the Saudi ambassador by planting explosives at a Washington restaurant and that he recognized the plan likely would have resulted in many casualties. “A large number of bystanders who had done nothing other than chose to eat in a particular restaurant were very likely to be killed as a result of the assassination of the ambassador,” the government said. “Nonetheless, Arbabsiar quickly dismissed the significance of those additional civilian casualties and on numerous occasions demonstrated a callous disregard for all those who would be killed.” Prosecutors said that the plot was thwarted only because the person Arbabsiar recruited to assist his co-conspirators happened to be working as a law enforcement source.