Musab Masmari, who has admitted to setting a fire at a gay bar in Seattle on New Year's Day, has been sentenced to 10 years in federal prison.
About 15 minutes after midnight, Masmari poured gasoline in a stairway to Neighbours’ balcony and lit the pool of fuel. The fire was quickly doused with a fire extinguisher; there were about 750 people in the club at the time.
Masmari, a California native also known as Musab Musmari, was arrested days later on his way to Sea-Tac Airport after buying a one-way ticket to Turkey.
In a letter to the court, Masmari, 31, explained he’d consumed a bottle of cheap whiskey in the hours before he set the fire. He claims not to remember setting it, though he recognized himself on a surveillance video.
“I do not believe that I am a bad man but when I get drunk I have done bad things,” Masmari said in a letter to the court. “I swear that it is my intent to never drink again.”
The prosecutors and defense team agreed to ask for a 5 year sentence, but U.S. District Judge Ricardo Martinez doubled the term to 10 years in Thursday's sentencing hearing.
While Masmari stated that alcohol led to the crime, prosecutors pointed to interviews with people who know Masmari and said the fire was set due to homophobia.
“One of Masmari’s close associates was interviewed by investigators and reported that Masmari confided in him that he ‘burned a gay club’ and that he did it because ‘what these people are doing is wrong,’” Assistant U.S. Attorney Todd Greenberg said in court papers.
Surveillance video made public after the fire clearly showed Masmari entering a club next to Neighbours, setting the fire and leaving.
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