N.Y. musician gets 15 years for backing al Qaeda

NEW YORK (Reuters) - A New York jazz musician was sentenced to 15 years in prison on Wednesday for agreeing to help train al Qaeda fighters in hand-to-hand combat in a case that centered on an oath he took before an undercover FBI agent.

Tarik Shah, 44, a martial arts instructor raised in New York, received the maximum sentence in Manhattan federal court under a plea agreement with U.S. prosecutors.

Shah pleaded guilty in April to one count of conspiring to support al Qaeda. In exchange, prosecutors dropped one of the terrorism charges against him.

Two other men pleaded guilty and a third was convicted by a federal jury, but Shah was the central figure based on an oath he and a friend took in Arabic in May 2005 before an undercover FBI agent who posed as an al Qaeda recruiter.

Shah, a Muslim, pleaded for leniency to U.S. District Judge Loretta Preska, saying "certain" New York and world events "had a heavy effect on my heart" and caused him anger.

"I made some bad decisions, some decisions that took me away from my family and my music," he said. "I am regretful for what I have done."

Afterward, Shah spoke quietly to his mother and tapped his hand to his heart in front of crying friends and relatives.

Earlier, his lawyer asked the judge to consider there was no evidence against Shah involving any real al Qaeda operatives, plot or weapons.

But Preska said after listening to several FBI audiotapes she believed Shah "enthusiastically embraced" agreeing to train al Qaeda fighters for combat against U.S. forces and allies.

Prosecutors said Shah wanted to attend militant training camps in Afghanistan before pledging support to "Sheikh Osama" and al Qaeda deputy leader Ayman al-Zawahiri during one of many taped meetings with the undercover agent.

Three other men were charged in the case, including Shah's friend, Rafiq Sabir, a Florida-based doctor who also attended the May 2005 meeting.

Sabir was convicted in May of two terrorism charges for agreeing to give medical treatment to al Qaeda fighters. He faces up to 30 years in prison when sentenced November 14.

Mahmud Faruq Brent, a former paramedic and cab driver in Maryland, was sentenced to 15 years in prison in July for attending a training camp in Pakistan operated by Lashkar-e-Taiba, which the U.S. State Department has designated as a terrorist organization.

A fourth man, Brooklyn bookstore owner Abdulrahman Farhane, was sentenced in April to 13 years for conspiring to transfer funds to militant groups in Afghanistan and Chechnya.