Pakistani court sentences Americans for terrorism
Pakistani policemen escort hand-cuffed men identified as Umar Farooq, (3rd L), Aman Hassan Yemer, (C front) Ramy Zamzam, (C rear) and Waqar Hussain Khan, (R) who police say are four of five Americans arrested in Pakistan, leave after their court appearance in Sargodha, Punjab province, 190 km (118 miles) southeast of Islamabad, January 18, 2010.
Credit: Reuters/Faisal Mahmood
SARGODHA, Pakistan |
SARGODHA, Pakistan (Reuters) - Five American students were sentenced on Thursday to 10 years in jail for contacting militants online and plotting attacks by a court in Pakistan, fighting its own battle with Islamist radicals.
The students, in their 20s, were detained in December in Pakistan's central city of Sargodha, 190 km (120 miles) southeast of Islamabad.
Deputy Prosecutor Rana Bakhtiar said the men were convicted on two counts each, with one carrying a 10-year sentence and the other carrying five years, to be served concurrently. They were also fined a total of 70,000 rupees ($820).
"Both these sentences will begin concurrently and in practice they will spend 10 years in jail. We will appeal in the high court to enhance the sentence," Bakhtiar said.
Waqar Hussain Khan, Ahmed Minni, Ramy Zamzam, Aman Yemer and Umar Farooq were each charged with five counts of conspiracy, raising funds for terrorist acts, planning war against Pakistan, directing others to launch attacks and attempting to cross the Afghan border illegally.
Deputy prosecutor Bakhtiar said the court issued the 10-year sentences for conspiracy and five years for raising funds. The other charges were dropped.
HIGH SECURITY FOR SENTENCING
The sentencing took place amid high security and journalists were not allowed inside the courtroom. Lawyers from both sides announced the sentences outside the jail.
The five men told the court earlier that they only wanted to provide fellow Muslim brothers in Afghanistan with medicine and financial help, and accused the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation and Pakistani police of torturing them and trying to frame them.
Hassan Katchela, a defense lawyer for the group, said the sentences would be appealed.
"We are a bit surprised because we believed it was not a case for conviction," he said. "We are confident and we are going to file appeals against these conviction in the high court."
After the sentencing, one of the men's father expressed his dismay.
"It's the greatest disappointment," said Khalid Farooq, father of Umar Farooq. "The judge didn't even bother to go through evidence against them. It was so weak."
Two of the five are of Pakistani origin. The others are from Egyptian, Yemeni and Eritrean origins.
The students were arrested days after arriving in Pakistan last year.
Pakistani police said e-mails showed they contacted militants, who had planned to use them for attacks in Pakistan.
In Washington, State Department spokesman Mark Toner said the United States respected the Pakistani government's right to conduct such trials but declined comment on the verdict itself or on whether the men had received a fair trial.
"It's premature to make any judgment on the trial," he said, noting that both sides may appeal the outcome.
(Additional reporting by Augustine Anthony in Islamabad and by Arshad Mohammed in Washington; Editing by Chris Allbritton and Miral Fahmy)
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They should also go after the rest of the clan that supported this adventure.
The claim that they were tortured into confessing is laughable. That’s the AQ playbook 101.
Dash
When will the US government and the world press tell the truth?
When America will learn how to read?
Exclusive: How MI5 blackmails British Muslims
‘Work for us or we will say you are a terrorist’
By Robert Verkaik, Law Editor
Three of the men say they were detained at foreign airports on the orders of MI5 after leaving Britain on family holidays last year.
After they were sent back to the UK, they were interviewed by MI5 officers who, they say, falsely accused them of links to Islamic extremism. On each occasion the agents said they would lift the travel restrictions and threat of detention in return for their co-operation. When the men refused some of them received what they say were intimidating phone calls and threats.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/exclusive-how-mi5-blackmails-british-muslims-1688618.html
Home Secretary was warned of MI5’s ‘blackmailing of Muslims’
By Robert Verkaik, Home Affairs Editor
The Home Secretary, Jacqui Smith, was warned nine months ago about MI5’s alleged campaign of blackmail and intimidation against a group of young Muslim men, The Independent has learnt. Veteran Labour MP Frank Dobson wrote to Ms Smith
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/home-secretary-was-warned-of-mi5s-blackmailing-of-muslims-1689212.html
‘work for us or we will say you are a terrorist’
Mohamed Nur, 25, a community youth worker from north London, claims he was threatened by the Security Service after an agent gained access to his home accompanied by a police officer posing as a postman.
“The MI5 agent said, ‘Mohamed if you do not work for us we will tell any foreign country you try to travel to that you are a suspected terrorist.’”
http://www.somalilandpatriots.com/news-7973-0
Israel’s Dark Art of Ensnaring Palestinian Collaborators
According to the Israeli branch of Physicians for Human Rights, the Shin Bet is exploiting the distress of these families to pressure them to agree to collaborate in return for an exit permit.
Last month, the group released details of 32 cases in which sick Gazans admitted they were denied permits after refusing to become informants.
http://www.antiwar.com/cook/?articleid=13450
Read America, read….
Does anyone remember all the hundreds of men who were kidnapped and brought to Guantanamo and finally released when it was realized they had never even been members of Taliban or Al-Qaida. All of this was part of the phoney propaganda of the Bush/Cheney regime to keep the US public scared and properly sheep like.
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