Armenian man sentenced for explosives

CLEVELAND - A man suspected of supplying explosives used to bomb the Turkish mission to the United Nations in 1980 was sentenced yesterday to a maximum three years in prison for storing explosives.

U.S. District Judge Ann Aldrich ordered Mourad Topalian to begin serving his sentence immediately and denied a request for him to remain free until August so he could be with his 7-year-old daughter who is recovering from leukemia.

Topalian told the judge that he was surprised by how prosecutors portrayed him.

"I don't recognize the person they have described. I don't know that person," Topalian said. Topalian is an Armenian activist who has demanded that Turkey admit to the mass killing of Armenians during World War I.

Prosecutors say Topalian provided explosives and helped arrange the Oct. 12, 1980, car bombing outside the Turkish mission, which injured three people.

The 57-year-old, of suburban Shaker Heights, struck a deal with prosecutors last May under which he pleaded guilty to storing stolen explosives and possessing two machine guns.As part of the plea bargain, a conspiracy count and two other felony charges were dismissed.

The charges stem from the discovery of guns and more than 100 pounds of decaying explosives at a rental storage facility in suburban Bedford in 1996. The explosives were ultimately traced to Topalian, a former vice president at Cuyahoga Community College.

Aldrich said she would sentence Topalian within a range of 30 to 37 months, based on the potential for danger from the storage of the explosives.

Robert R. Reid, who was police chief in Bedford at the time and now is city manager, testified that the explosives were within a few hundred yards of a school, day care center, playground, church and Interstate 271.