Miami, Sep 9 (EFE).- A federal judge in Miami on Tuesday increased from 17 to 21 years the sentence imposed in 2007 on Al Qaeda recruit Jose Padilla, the first U.S. citizen to be declared an enemy combatant within the context of the George W. Bush administration's global war on terrorism.
U.S. District Judge Marcia Cooke added four years after a 2011 appellate ruling that the original sentence was too lenient.
Padilla, 43, remains in a federal detention center in Miami after being convicted of conspiracy to murder, kidnap and maim people abroad, as well as conspiracy to provide material support for terrorism.
Arrested in 2002 on his return to the United States from Afghanistan, Padilla was declared an "enemy combatant" and transferred from a civilian jail in New York to a U.S. Navy brig in Charleston, South Carolina.
In 2012, the American Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit against the United States before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights over the "illegal detention and torture" of Padilla.
Attorneys for Padilla also sought relief from the U.S. Supreme Court, which rejected the appeal.
The ACLU said at the time that Padilla was "imprisoned without charge for almost four years, subjected to extreme abuse and was not able to communicate with his lawyers or relatives for two years."
