Lynnwood sex offender gets credit for prison time served in Netherlands
Published 1:30 am Monday, June 12, 2023
EVERETT — A Lynnwood man convicted of child molestation must be given credit for time served behind bars when he fled to the Netherlands, according to a new ruling from the state Court of Appeals.
In 2017, Hussein Salim Ali was charged with two counts of child molestation in the first degree and a later added charge of assault of a child in the third degree for abusing a 9-year-old girl while he was living in Lynnwood six years prior.
But before he was able to appear before a judge in 2019, he fled to the Netherlands. He was apprehended and spent two years in Dutch custody.
Upon his extradition back to the United States in 2021, Ali pleaded guilty to all charges and was sentenced to at least eight years in prison, with the possibility for life behind bars. If he’s released, he’ll be on probation for life.
The defendant requested the time he spent imprisoned abroad be taken off his prison time, citing a Washington law requiring a defendant to receive credit for “all time served in confinement on a criminal charge whether that time is served before or after sentencing,” the court ruling said.
Snohomish County Superior Court Judge Joseph Wilson denied the request, under another state law that allows the court to deny credit for those convicted of a serious sex offense, the court opinion says. The state also argued Ali does not have a federal right to credit for his time served abroad.
“He was on the run for 1,345 days. He spent 902 of those days in custody in the Netherlands,” Wilson said in 2022. “He was enjoying himself and living a life, presumably.”
Last week, the state Court of Appeals ruled he had the statutory right to credit, the court opinion says. Ali had not been convicted during his time in the Netherlands, meaning the law cited by the prosecutors did not apply.
State law requires the sentencing court to “give the offender credit for all confinement time served before the sentencing if that confinement was solely in regard to the offense for which the offender is being sentenced,” the Court of Appeals ruled.
The court concluded Ali’s time served in the Netherlands was related to his Washington offenses.
The three-judge panel also ruled on Ali’s claim that the trial court “erroneously ordered him to pay DOC supervision fees.” Those fees were waived under the new ruling.
Ali remained behind bars this week at Stafford Creek Corrections Center.
Maya Tizon: 425-339-3434; maya.tizon@heraldnet.com; Twitter: @mayatizon.
