American Taliban seeks reduced sentence

SAN FRANCISCO -- John Walker Lindh, the American captured in Afghanistan after he had joined the Taliban, asked the Justice Department on Tuesday to reduce his 20-year prison sentence after hearing news that another captured man was being released, his parents and lawyers said.

"Despite what people think, or may think, John Lindh took no action whatsoever against his native country," Lindh's mother, Marilyn Lindh, said at a news conference here on Tuesday. "I hope America can find it in her heart to forgive John."

One of the lawyers, James J. Brosnahan, said the request came in response to the government's decision to release Yaser E. Hamdi, a U.S.-born Saudi who is expected to return to his family in Saudi Arabia. Hamdi, who was not convicted of a crime, and Lindh were captured in late 2001 when their Taliban units surrendered to the Northern Alliance.

"It seems to us a matter of justice, and if I may use the word, compassion, for the president to consider reducing John Lindh's sentence," Brosnahan said.

He said the request was filed with pardon officials in the Justice Department, as required by law, but he said Lindh was requesting a reduced sentence and not a pardon.

"We have not specified how much it should be reduced," Brosnahan said. "Hamdi served three years, and we say they are comparable."

A spokesman for the Justice Department declined to comment.

In July 2002, when Lindh reached a plea agreement with federal prosecutors in Virginia that included the 20-year sentence, the chief prosecutor, Paul J. McNulty, described the plea as "an important victory for the people of the United States in the battle against terrorism."

Lindh pleaded guilty to two felonies: providing service to the Taliban and carrying explosives while doing so. The more serious charges in a 10-count indictment against him, including conspiring to kill Americans and engaging in terrorism, were dropped by the government.

Lindh is being held at a medium-security federal prison in California, where his parents said they visited him monthly.

"John is doing very well," his father, Frank Lindh, said at the news conference.

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