Miami man gets 13-year sentence for Sears Tower plot

MIAMI (Reuters) - The ringleader of a group of Miami men convicted of plotting to blow up Chicago's Sears Tower and government offices was sentenced to 13-1/2 years in prison on Friday.

The sentence for Narseal Batiste was handed down by a federal court judge in Miami, who earlier this week announced lighter prison terms ranging from five to eight years for Batiste's four co-conspirators.

The case was touted as a major blow against terrorism and a victory in government efforts to dismantle domestic "sleeper cells" when federal agents arrested the men in Miami's poor and predominantly black Liberty City neighborhood in June 2006.

But the men, accused of conspiring with al Qaeda to wage holy war, insisted on their innocence and two mistrials were declared before a jury finally found them guilty in May.

Defense lawyers said the alleged plot was concocted by the government and overzealous prosecutors with the help of informants who posed as Middle Eastern contacts.

Batiste, who had faced a maximum of 70 years in prison, got 35 years probation along with his 162-month prison sentence. He was convicted of conspiring to provide material support to al Qaeda, conspiring to provide material support to an act of terrorism, conspiring to destroy a building and conspiring to wage war against the United States.

Authorities conceded at the time of the arrests that the Liberty City men posed no real threat because they had neither contacts with Islamic militant groups nor the means of carrying out attacks.

But Batiste was accused of targeting the Sears Tower, America's tallest skyscraper, for one potential attack and other possible targets of the plot included Miami's FBI headquarters, a federal courthouse and the Miami Police Department.

"This prosecution helped make our community safer by rooting out nascent terrorists before they could carry out their threats," said Jeffrey Sloman, acting U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Florida.

The Sears Tower was renamed the Willis Tower earlier this year after Willis Group Holdings, a London-based insurance broker, consolidated its regional offices there.

(Reporting by Tom Brown; editing by Anthony Boadle)