Mansour Arabsiar signed a plea bargain but receieved no bargain

Mansour Arabsiar signed a plea bargain but receieved no bargain
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2013/05/14/303535/mansour-arabsiar-plea-bargain-imprisonement-court-judgment/
Arash Khalatbari, Press TV, Tehran
Tue May 14, 2013 6:28PM GMT

This is Mansour Arbabsiar, Iranian-American who was arrested at New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport on September 29, 2011. He was arrested on charges of planning to assassinate Saudi Ambassador Adel al-Jubeir in a bomb attack at a restaurant in Washington. He signed a plea bargain offered to him by Preet Bharara, US Attorney for the Southern District of New York. Mansour Arbabsiar was represented by Sabrina Shroff, a federal public defender, appointed by the court. Arbabsiar’s family says that the plea bargain was signed under duress. They add that Shroff misguided them about the terms of the plea agreement.

Experts say, a defendant who goes to trial and is found guilty of a serious felony receives, on the average, a prison sentence that is twice as long as the sentence offered in a plea bargain for the same offense. Arabsiar’s plea bargain agreement states “The defendant acknowledges that his entry of a guilty plea to the charged offenses authorizes the sentencing court to impose any sentence, up to an including the statutory maximum sentence”. Iran’s foreign Ministry Spokesman touched upon this issue in his press conference.

According to Black’s Law Dictionary, the defendant will plead guilty to a less serious charge, or to one of several charges, in return for the dismissal of other charges; or it may mean that the defendant will plead guilty to the original criminal charge in return for a more lenient sentence.