Multiday sentencing starting in Chicago terrorism case

A multiday sentencing hearing focused on whether undercover FBI agents egged on a teenager to participate in a terrorist plot knowing he was mentally ill begins Monday in Chicago. Agents arrested the now-25-year-old Adel Daoud in a 2012 string after he tried to detonate what he believed was a real bomb outside a crowded Chicago bar.

The hearing will proceed like a mini-trial. An undercover agent is among those who will testify. Daoud, of Hillside, Illinois, was temporarily deemed mentally unfit in 2016 after declaring Illuminati and "reptilian overlords" were after him. He entered a no-contest plea in November. The defence wants Daoud freed as soon as a mental health program can be tailored for him. Prosecutors want a 40-year prison term, saying Daoud "needed no convincing to kill."