Federal prosecutors plan to appeal the 16-year prison sentence given to a man for trying to kill hundreds of people by detonating what he thought was a car bomb outside a crowded Chicago bar in 2012.

Prosecutors requested a 40-year sentence for Adel Daoud, who entered an Alford plea last November.

U.S. Attorney John Lausch on Wednesday filed notice with the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals of plans to appeal Daoud's sentence. A spokesman for Lausch had no comment on the decision.

Daoud's attorney, Thomas Durkin, is calling the move to appeal the sentencing "a cruel, wrong-headed and stupid decision."

In imposing the sentence last month on the 25-year-old Daoud, U.S. District Judge Sharon Johnson Coleman criticized the FBI for appearing to take advantage of Daoud's extreme immaturity.