3 US teens guilty of 'ethnic intimidation'

Three teenagers from North Carolina state have been found guilty of "ethnic intimidation" for attacking two university students after one of the teens called one of them "Osama."

One victim, Gagandeep Bindra, a Sikh who wore his hair wrapped in a patka at the time of the assault, testified during the trial in Orange County District Court Monday that Kenneth Perry, one of those found guilty, had indeed called him by the Al Qaeda leader's name in March and that he had responded by saying, "Your mama."

The teenagers then followed him and hit Bindra and his friend Sean Michnowicz, who tried to intervene after Kenneth Perry threw the first punch.

Orange County District Court Judge Alonzo Coleman sentenced Perry, 19, to four months in prison after finding the trio guilty of ethnic intimidation and assault, inflicting serious injury, in a bench trial, a news report said.

Coleman sentenced the other two teens involved -- Frederick Perry, 17, and Antonio Burnette, 18 -- to three-and-a-half months in prison, but suspended the sentences for the younger Perry and Burnette and placed them on two years' probation, the Durhan Herald Sun reported.

Conditions for the suspended sentences include that the two complete 48 hours of community service, graduate from high school, stay off the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill campus unless they have court permission and submit a report to Coleman on a book about people getting along with people of different races or ethnicities.

The defendants have promised to appeal.