MIAMI, 23 January 2008 — Jose Padilla, once accused of plotting with Al-Qaeda to blow up a radioactive “dirty bomb,” was sentenced yesterday to 17 years and four months on terrorism conspiracy charges that don’t mention those initial allegations.

The sentence imposed by US District Judge Marcia Cooke marks another step in the odyssey of the 37-year-old Muslim convert, a US citizen who was held for 3 1/2 years as an enemy combatant after his 2002 arrest amid the “dirty bomb” allegations.

Cooke also sentenced Padilla’s alleged recruiter, 45-year-old Adham Amin Hassoun, to 15 years and eight months in prison and the third defendant, 46-year-old Kifah Wael Jayyousi, to 12 years and eight months.

Civil liberties groups and Padilla’s lawyers called his detention unconstitutional for someone born in this country and contended that he was only charged criminally because the Supreme Court appeared poised to order him either charged or released.