FORT LAUDERDALE, Florida (AP) — A Trinidadian immigrant received a federal prison sentence of almost five years yesterday for a terrorist bombing plot hatched in a Florida mosque.

Shueyb Mossa Jokhan suggested Mount Rushmore as a target after he, a Pakistani Muslim and FBI informants talked about bombing an armoury, electrical substations and Jewish businesses. No attacks were launched, and no weapons were obtained.

Jokhan, 24, was too choked up to speak to the judge. But defence attorney, Phil Horowitz read a statement he wrote apologising to Jews and the US armed forces “for what I have said and done”.

Jokhan and the Pakistani immigrant, Imran Mandhai, faced five to 20 years in federal prison on their guilty pleas to a terrorist conspiracy.

“There aren’t that many of these types of cases that thankfully have occurred or I hope will occur,” US District Judge William Dimitrouleas said.

Jokhan’s prison term of four years and 10 months was lower than federal guidelines because he began cooperating with FBI agents about a year before his arrest, Horowitz said.

Both the defence and prosecutors said the sentence was fair. A relative, who did not give her name, said the sentence was a “big relief”.

Mandhai, 19, faces sentencing on October 17 on his guilty plea to the same charge — conspiracy to damage or destroy property by means of fire or explosives.

Jokhan was recruited by Mandhai at a Pembroke Pines mosque, where the FBI used informants and wiretaps to try to expose suspected Islamic militants, according to court documents. The investigation began before last year’s September 11 attacks.

There was talk of launching a holy war, creating chaos, making demands to stop aid to Israel, freeing all Muslims in US jails and changing US policy on the Middle East, according to court records.

The men tried to buy a gun but couldn’t for lack of credit. The indictment charged that their wish list for supplies included assault weapons, night vision equipment, stun guns, pepper spray, smoke grenades and other military supplies.

“It obviously went past trash talking since it was charged and agreed to in a conspiracy,” Horowitz said. He said he had no explanation for his client’s actions.

Jokhan’s mother, grandmother, other relatives and friends wrote to the judge asking for leniency and calling Jokhan naive, misguided and easily influenced.

Jokhan was an American Express clerk in Hollywood, Florida, when he was arrested in May. As a teenager, he sold auto parts in his late father’s shop in Trinidad. He is a US citizen of Pakistani descent who arrived in the United States in 1994.

“I don’t know how he got caught up in this whole mess,” Tori Carden, his brother’s girlfriend, wrote to the judge.

His sister-in-law, Felecia Jokhan, wrote: “He was preyed upon by people who used his strong religious beliefs against him for their own gain, wanting to plant their seeds of evil into his thoughts and heart.”

A 20-year sentence was possible under a 1999 anti-terrorism law passed by Congress in response to the first World Trade Centre attack and the Oklahoma City bombing.

The defence sought the lightest possible sentence because there was no actual or attempted terrorism.

The investigation began in 2000 after an informant who offered to infiltrate mosques gave an impassioned speech about the Palestinian struggle at the Darul Uloom Institute.

The informant, a Canadian Jew who dream of becoming a CIA agent, said Mandhai approached him later, asking for weapons and tactical training. The FBI replaced the informant with someone else and began recording meetings with Jokhan and Mandhai.