Former Guantanamo translator gets 20 months

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An American translator who admitted taking classified documents from the U.S. prison camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, was sentenced Friday to 20 months in prison. With time already served, Ahmed Fathy Mehalba could be out in three weeks.


He was one of four men swept up in an espionage investigation at the Navy base. Some or all charges were dropped against the three other men — a Muslim chaplain, another interpreter and an Army Reserve colonel.

Mehalba was arrested at Boston's Logan Airport in 2003 after returning from Egypt. Customs agents found 132 compact discs in his luggage, including one that contained hundreds of documents labeled "SECRET" or "SECRET/NOFORN," meaning no foreign government was allowed to look at them.

Under federal sentencing guidelines, he would have faced around three to four years in prison. But prosecutors agreed to recommend a lower sentence because he accepted responsibility for his actions, has no criminal record and had "significantly reduced mental capacity" at the time he committed the crimes. Defense attorney Joseph Savage said Mehalba has been treated for manic depression and attention deficit disorder.