FINDINGS, SENTENCE DISAPPROVED IN TERRORISM CASE AGAINST NOOR UTHMAN MUHAMMED

FROM:  U.S. DEFENSE DEPARTMENT 
Release No: NR-013-15
January 09, 2015
Findings and sentence disapproved in US v. Noor Uthman Muhammed

On Jan. 9, pursuant to his authority under 10 U.S.C. § 950b, the convening authority for military commissions disapproved the findings and sentence, and dismissed the charges in the case of United States v. Noor Uthman Muhammed.
Muhammed, a native of Sudan, pled guilty in February 2011 at a military commission to providing material support for terrorism and conspiracy to provide material support for terrorism. A panel of military officers sentenced him to fourteen years confinement. In accordance with the provisions of a pretrial agreement, a previous convening authority granted a deferment of confinement effective Dec. 3, 2013.

Muhammed was repatriated from Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to Sudan on Dec. 19, 2013.

Subsequent to his commission proceedings, decisions by the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals in separate commissions cases established that it was legal error to try the offense of providing material support for terrorism before a military commission. The decisions of the D.C. Circuit are binding on commissions cases and the convening authority’s action to disapprove the findings and sentence in Muhammed’s case is required in the interests of justice and under the rule of law.