Daily Star - Moroccan gets seven years for attempted murder, November 15, 2008

A Lebanese court sentenced Jamal Abdel-Khaleq Bzazi, a Moroccan national to seven years prison with hard labor for attempting to kill the owner of a money-exchange shop in the northern Beirut suburb of Dora in 2002, a judicial report said Friday. According to the report, the court revealed that Bzazi contacted an Algerian accomplice, only identified as "Hawari," with whom he planned to rob the money-exchange shop in order to fund the purchase of an anti-tank missile with the aim of launching it at the US Embassy in Lebanon. The report said the two planned to purchase the weapon in Tripoli. The report added that Bzazi panicked when people began screaming and shouting during the attempted murder/robbery. Hawari managed to escape. Bzazi's sentence was reduced from a death sentenced to seven years with hard labor. Bzazi denied charges against him in court, saying Hawari had promised to find him a good job in Lebanon. - The Daily Star