Airline bomber set to be released from prison

Posted: Sat 11:35 AM, Mar 16, 2013

WASHINGTON (AP) - A man convicted of a 1982 terrorist attack aboard a Pan Am jetliner is days away from being released from federal prison.

Mohammed Rashed has been in custody for more than two decades in connection with the bombing aboard Pan Am Flight 830. A Japanese teenager en route to Hawaii was killed.

Rashed pleaded guilty in Washington in 2002. He's being released from federal prison Wednesday as part of a plea agreement that required him to cooperate on other terrorist plots.

His release could leave the government without a star witness in the event authorities capture Abu Ibrahim, the Palestinian who orchestrated that attack and others around the world. The Justice Department says it has other evidence to pursue Ibrahim.

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