Sharply criticizing a jury's acquittal on murder charges, a Manhattan judge sentenced an Egyptian immigrant to the maximum sentence of 7 1/3 to 22 years in prison yesterday for gun possession, assault and coercion charges arising from the assassination of Rabbi Meir Kahane.
As hundreds of police officers kept chanting Arabs away from Jewish sympathizers outside the Manhattan Criminal Courts Building, State Supreme Court Justice Alvin Schlesinger said the jury's decision to acquit the immigrant, El Sayyid A. Nosair, of murder last month "was against the overwhelming weight of evidence and was devoid of common sense and logic."
Saying he wished he could have given a longer sentence, Justice Schlesinger said, "This was not a simple case of gun possession," but was instead "a case of extreme violence visited on this city."
"I believe the defendant conducted a rape of this country, of our Constitution and of our laws, and of people seeking to exist peacefully together," the judge said as he peered sternly at the 36-year-old defendant clad in Arab attire at the defense table.
Justice Schlesinger said he would have preferred to have sentenced Mr. Nosair consecutively on all four lesser convictions that ended his murder trial on Dec. 21. But he said that the law allowed for only two of the convictions -- the ones for gun possession and coercion -- to be served consecutively, thus limiting Mr. Nosair's imprisonment to 7 1/3 to 22 years instead of a possible 12 to 36 years. Mr. Nosair has already served 15 months in jail, so he will become eligible for parole in six years.
Some jurors said they shared a "reasonable doubt" about Mr. Nosair's guilt because the prosecution did not offer a witness during the five-week trial who saw the defendant fire the fatal shots. Despite the weight of other incriminating evidence, the jurors also questioned why the fatal bullet was not recovered so that it could be linked to the weapon found on the sidewalk near Mr. Nosair.
Mr. Nosair vehemently defended himself yesterday in his first statement given in court.
"I'm innocent," he exclaimed. "I had nothing to do with it."
Waving a notebook from which he read, he said: "The police did their best to convict me and all that has happened to me is on their hands.
"Witnesses said the murderer had curly hair," he said as he removed his Islamic skullcap and showed a slicked-back head of black hair to the court. "Does this look like curly hair?"
He then offered condolences to the family of Mr. Kahane, a militant opponent of Arabs and the former head of the Jewish Defense League, and to the other victims who were shot or assaulted on the night of Nov. 5, 1990, following the killing of the 58-year-old rabbi after he gave a talk at a midtown hotel.
As Mr. Nosair made his remarks, one of Mr. Kahane's sympathizers shouted "Insult!" then another yelled "Death to Nosair!" and a third snarled "You pig!" before they all were swiftly expelled from the 13th-floor courtroom, where court officers outnumbered rival Jewish and Arab sympathizers.
Prosecutors said Mr. Nosair shot Mr. Kahane to death in a meeting room of the Marriott East Side Hotel, on Lexington Avenue at 48th Street. Trail of Violence
The police said that after shooting Mr. Kahane, Mr. Nosair shot 73-year-old Irving Kaufman in the leg after Mr. Kaufman unsuccessfully tried to block Mr. Nosair's escape.
Once outside, Mr. Nosair commandeered a taxi driven by Irving Garcia by holding a pistol to his head. When the taxi stopped for a red light, the police said Mr. Nosair fled and ran into the path of a uniformed Postal Service officer, 56-year-old Carlos Acosta.
In an exchange of gunfire, both Mr. Nosair and Mr. Acosta were wounded, with the gun allegedly used by Mr. Nosair found near him on the sidewalk.
Several Jewish leaders have called for a Federal investigation into possible civil rights violations by Mr. Nosair in the murder of the rabbi. In response, Otto G. Obermaier, the United States Attorney in Manhattan, said he was reviewing "all available evidence in this case, including that available to the District Attorney's office of New York County, to determine whether further legal proceedings are appropriate and necessary."
Mr. Nosair, a Muslim who came to the United States in 1981, became an American citizen in September 1989. He lived with his wife and their two sons, ages 8 and 7, in Cliffside Park, N.J.
Photo: Supporters of El Sayyid A. Nosair demonstrating outside the courthouse during Mr. Nosair's sentencing (pg. A1); Supporters of the late Rabbi Meir Kahane demonstrating outside court in Manhattan yesterday during the sentencing of El Sayyid A. Nosair. Mr. Nosair, who was acquitted in the murder of Mr. Kahane, was sentenced to 7 1/3 to 22 years in prison on other charges stemming from the killing. (Budd Williams for The New York Times) (pg. B3)
