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Musab Mohammad Masmari, the man who tried to burn down a popular 聽gay bar in Seattle on a packed New Year鈥檚 Eve, has been sentenced to 10 years in prison.

The sentence, , was considered exceptionally stiff, after Masmari had , meaning he would not face the federal hate-crime charges that were considered in the case. According to the Seattle Times, the sentence more than doubled the time agreed to in the plea bargain.

Masmari, a 30-year-old American citizen of Libyan extraction and upbringing, was caught on camera as he carried a container filled with gasoline through Neighbours, a popular bar in Seattle鈥檚 Capitol Hill neighborhood, on New Year鈥檚 Eve. Shortly afterwards, patrons smelled smoke and found the container on the landing to a set of stairs engulfed in flames; their prompt action quickly doused the fire.

An estimated 750 people were in the bar at the time, and the matter quickly became 鈥淚t was just a great thing that people acted as fast as they did to put out the fire,鈥� a police spokesperson said. 鈥淲e could have had mass, mass casualties, and we鈥檙e very lucky that that didn鈥檛 happen.鈥�

Some of the people present at the bar that night were in the courtroom during Masmari鈥檚 sentencing hearing on Thursday. Shaun Knittel, a Seattle LGBT-community activist, said he and others in the community were 鈥渄isgusted鈥� with the plea bargain鈥檚 five-year sentence. Neighbours, he said, was packed that night with 鈥減eople who are irreplaceable to us.鈥�

鈥淭his was a blatant attack on our lives,鈥� he said.

U.S. District Judge Ricardo Martinez told the courtroom he would use his discretion to impose the exceptional sentence because Masmari had clearly targeted his victims because they were gay, and because of the possibility of a huge loss of life.

Masmari, who claimed in a presentencing statement that he had blacked out that night after drinking a bottle of whiskey, did not speak during the hearing. His attorney said the stiff sentence was not entirely a surprise, 鈥渄ue to the political nature of this case.鈥�