Lawyer for bin Laden son-in-law gets 1-1/2 years prison in tax case

By Nate Raymond NEW YORK (Reuters) - A prominent New York defense lawyer who recently represented the son-in-law of Osama bin Laden was sentenced on Friday to 1-1/2 years in prison after pleading guilty to tax offenses. Stanley Cohen, the lawyer, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Norman Mordue in Syracuse, New York, after pleading guilty earlier this year to obstructing and impeding the Internal Revenue Service and willful failure to file income tax returns. Prosecutors said Cohen failed to file tax returns between 2005 and 2010, and routinely stored cash received from clients in a safe deposit box at an upstate bank. The charges were separate and apart from Cohen's representation of Suleiman Abu Ghaith, the son-in-law of Osama bin Laden and a former al Qaeda spokesman, who in September was sentenced to life in prison following his conviction on terrorism charges. The punishment resolved cases initially filed in Syracuse and Manhattan, where Cohen pleaded guilty in May to failing to file tax returns for his law office in 2006 and 2007. Cohen, at the time of his earlier guilty plea in April in Syracuse, said he expected to lose his law license as a result of pleading guilty. In a Twitter post after his sentencing in the tax case, Cohen said: "The machine goes on, 18 months-self surrender January 6th. Up the Rebels." His lawyer did not immediately respond to a request for comment. (Reporting by Nate Raymond in New York)