(August 7, 2008) - Osama bin Laden's former driver is thanking a military jury for sentencing him to five and a half years in prison.
The sentence makes Salim Hamdan eligible for release in just six months. He could have been sentenced to life. And prosecutors had wanted him to get at least 30 years.
Hamdan gets credit for five years already served at Guantanamo Bay, the U.S. Navy base in Cuba where his trial took place before a jury selected by the Pentagon.
As he thanked the jury, Hamdan also apologized again for having served Osama bin Laden. He said earlier today that he had taken the job because he needed the money, and that he hadn't known at the time that bin Laden was a terrorist leader.
Hamdan, who's from Yemen, was convicted yesterday of aiding terrorism, but he was cleared on conspiracy charges.
The judge in the first war crimes trial at Guantanamo says he doesn't know what will happen to Hamdan when his sentence is complete. But he says he'll probably be eligible for the same administrative review process as other prisoners.
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