2009 detention of Americans by Pakistan
Encyclopedia
Five Muslim American
s with suspected ties to terrorism were detained on December 9, 2009, in Pakistan
. The five men, part of an increasing trend in homegrown terrorism
, in their late teens to early twenties and from the Washington, D.C.
, suburbs, were detained during a police raid on a house with links to a militant group. The group is sometimes referred to as the D.C. 5 due to having lived in the D.C. Metro
area.
Early in the ongoing investigation, officials described them as en route to fight against American forces in Afghanistan
. The police chief of Sargodha
said the men had been in contact with local militant groups since August 2009. The men had offered their assistance in unspecified attacks. They were not initially accused of a crime. They had been missing from their home area for approximately a month prior to their detention.
On June 24, 2010, the five men were sentenced to 10 years imprisonment; both the defense and the prosecution are planning to appeal.
The men departed from the Dulles International Airport
and travelled to Karachi
, Pakistan, and then Hyderabad
, to Lahore
, spending five days there, and finally to Sargodha. They landed in Karachi on November 20. One of the men had left an 11-minutes-long video expressing his view that Muslim lands must be defended against western "invaders," although it was not described as a martyrdom video typical amongst militants. According to investigators, the men had planned to meet a contact close to the Afghan border between Punjab and the North-West Frontier Province, and then to proceed to the stronghold of the Taliban and al-Qaeda
. That contact turned out to be a Taliban recruiter named Saifullah, whom Minni had met on the internet after the latter posted remarks praising video footage on YouTube
showing attacks on American forces.
The house they were detained at is in Sargodha
in Punjab Province
, and was occupied by Khalid Farooq. Farooq is the father of one of the men, and is suspected of ties to Jaish-e-Muhammed
, a banned militant group to which the house itself is also linked, and was owned by the uncle of one of the men. According to the Federal Bureau of Investigation
(FBI), the men "were detained without incident."
Investigators stated that the men were en route to Afghanistan to fight on the side of the Taliban against U.S. and NATO forces. The investigators mentioned that the men had planned to go to South Waziristan
, a lawless region used by militant groups for training purposes, from Sargodha. Pakistani officials said that men were a security threat and that they had arrested before being able to mount an attack. A prosecutor in the case, Nadeem Akram Cheema, said, based upon their contact with a Taliban recruiter, "They wanted to be part of an operation. They and their handlers did not have enough time to plan a meticulous attack and were nabbed before they could."
The men have said they were en route to Afghanistan to perform charity and humanitarian work assisting Muslim refugees. Listed on their visa applications as the purpose of travel, however, was to attend a friend's wedding in Karachi
and sightsee in Lahore
and Sargodha.
They knew each other from the ICNA Center, a mosque affiliated with Islamic Circle of North America
, in Arlington, Virginia
. ICNA is reportedly allied with the militant Islamic fundamentalist
organization of Jamaat-e-Islamiya
in Pakistan and Bangladesh. Steven Emerson
says that it has praised terror attacks, supports the imposition of shar'ia
(the Islamic code of law), and collects tax-deductible contributions (through charitable organizations that it has created) for Islamist causes. Also, in July 2002 Anwar al-Awlaki
, believed to be a senior talent recruiter and motivator for al-Qaeda who had contact with three of the 9/11 hijackers, the Fort Hood shooter
, and the Christmas Day bombing suspect (Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab
), spoke at a joint ICNA/MAS convention in Baltimore with Siraj Wahhaj
. ICNA was picketed in Texas in 2005 by ten anti-terrorism protesters who said it funds overseas terrorism, though its Dallas president had said "There's no evidence to support their claims."
The five were a "constant presence" at the mosque in "traditional Muslim dress." The men had been missing since late November 2009. Their families contacted local religious authorities, who then contacted the FBI
on December 1. Members of the mosque were unaware of the men's plans and they had not previously come to the attention of law enforcement agencies.
Their names are: Umer Farooq, Ramy Zamzam, Ahmed Abdullah, Waqar Khan, and Aman Yasir. Ahmed Abdullah was later identified as Ahmed Abdullah Minni.
On December 11, 2009, the FBI questioned the five men separately, wanting them to return to the U.S., but were uncertain as to whether they would be deported. The five were not immediately charged under Pakistani law, and it was not known what charges they may face in the U.S. The minister of law in Punjab
, Rana Sanaullah, said that the Pakistani government was interested in determining the group's affiliations before handing them over to U.S. officials and Pakistan’s interior minister, Rehman Malik
, wanted them cleared of any crimes in Pakistan before any extradition. The police have confiscated the men's computers, cell-phones, and an iPod
.
As of December 14, the high court of Lahore
was awaiting further information in the case before ruling on the issue of the extradition of the five men, which the U.S. had not yet sought. Police involved in the case said the men had been in contact with militant groups since August 2009, and had offered to assist those groups in attacks.
Police initially accused to men of having contacts in al-Qaeda
, a charge they denied. According to a lawyer for the defense, Hassan Dastgir Katchela, the prosectors case is based upon an alleged e-mail from an al-Qaeda
operative to the men. The five men deny that there is such an e-mail. An Advocate, Ameer Abdullah Rokri, of the group said they had no plans to seek training in terrorist tactics and that they intended to go to Afghanistan to work with refugees there. , Pakistani authorities had made a number of allegations against the men, most notably of attempting to engage in terrorism and police were planning to seek life sentences. The five may be charged "waging war against Pakistan" and "planning terrorist attacks in the country."
In mid-January 2010, the men appeared in a special anti-terrorism court in Sargodha, where the police detailed the charges against them. Police officials presented the judge with a 250-page charge sheet which contained evidence that the men had met with the Jaish-e-Muhammed
militant group in Hyderabad
. According to a member of the police, Usman Anwar, the men admitted their desire to wage jihad
and that they had donated money to banned militant groups. The men's legal representative, Khalid Khawaja
, said the men alleged that “they have been tortured and not treated properly”, an allegation they also shouted to reporters as they were led away from the court. Prison officials denied the allegations of torture. Anwar described the men as being "brainwashed
" to the "jihadi" cause to the extent that they attempted to convert him to it.
Defense sought to have the men released on bail on the grounds of lack of evidence, however this request was rejected by the presiding judge, Anwar Nazeer. The trial was set for March 17, 2010, according to the public prosecutor, Naveed Akram Cheema and a Pakistani court has blocked the men's extradition. The hearing on March 17 was adjourned by Judge Anwar Nazeer until March 31. On March 31, a hearing in the Sargodha Jail was adjourned until April 17. A U.S. delegation was in attendance.
The Pakistani Government, on April 17, presented its evidence, including documents, phone logs, e-mails and 13 witnesses. In addition, they announced the name of the al-Qaeda-linked militant, Qari Saifullah Akhtar
, that the five men have been accused of conspiring with. Akhtar is the leader of the Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami, a Pakistani militant group formed in the 1980s and suspects of having to ties to both al-Qaeda and the Taliban. Dastagir, a lawyer for the defense alleged the evidence had been fabricated by the police and said he would present evidence sufficient to prove the men's innocence.
, five charges:
The Wall Street Journal
also reported five charges, adding "directing a person to commit a terrorist act," and without the last two reported by The Times and the second of them listed as two separate charges: "criminal conspiracy to commit terrorism in Pakistan [and] planning to wage war against a friendly country."
According to The Washington Post
, six charges were brought against them, the five mentioned by The Times, in addition to directing a person or an organization to commit terrorist activities which also carries a possible life sentence. They were accused by the judge of directing one another to commit acts of terrorism.
The charges not carrying possible life sentences carry sentences of up to seven years. Nadeem Akram Cheema, a public prosecutor involved in the case said, "We will try to get the maximum punishment and we have all the evidence." That they were formally charges indicates that it is unlikely that they will be deported to the U.S. in the near future. The men plead not guilty and now await the next phase of the trial, a hearing on March 31, 2010 in which the prosecution will present its evidence against them. The men's Advocates expected the trial to go on for at least six months. and the case will be heard before a judge, in an anti-terrorism court in Sargodha.
, the executive director of Council on American-Islamic Relations
, said the families of each of the men had received letters from them each claiming they had been tortured. The alleged torture included beatings, threats of electrocution", deprivation of sleep, food and water and being choked by a guard. One of the men stated in letter dated March 10, "They beat the hell out of me and the rest of us until we said what they wanted us to say. Wallahi (by God) they even threatened to electrocute us the day before court so we don't tell the judge but we spoke out." The author of the letter was identified as Zamzam and Pakistani officials have not responded to the allegations made in it.
The men claimed that the torture was meted out by Pakistani Police and FBI agents, however, both U.S. and Pakistani authorities have denied those allegations. The men also claimed that the torture was directed by U.S. officials, which was denied by Pakistani prison official and the U.S. Consulate in Islamabad
. "Skeptics" dismissed the men's claims as a response learned through terrorist training for the purpose of using claims of torture as propaganda. A defense Counsel, Hasan Dastagir, said, "My clients were in good shape and high spirits." On March 17, the men's defense lawyers requested an investigation of Pakistani police and intelligence agencies regards their clients treatments. Hassan Dastgir Katchela, a lawyer with the defense, stated that there had been no further instance of abuse in the month prior to March 18. The U.S. State Department
expressed their concerns of possible abuse to Pakistani officials previously, however, the U.S. Government is satisfied that the trial was progressing openly.
Islam in the United States
From the 1880s to 1914, several thousand Muslims immigrated to the United States from the Ottoman Empire, and from parts of South Asia; they did not form distinctive settlements, and probably most assimilated into the wider society....
s with suspected ties to terrorism were detained on December 9, 2009, in Pakistan
Pakistan
Pakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a sovereign state in South Asia. It has a coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and China in the far northeast. In the north, Tajikistan...
. The five men, part of an increasing trend in homegrown terrorism
Homegrown terrorism
Homegrown terrorism is commonly associated with an international organization rather than being a ‘lone wolf’ act committed by isolated and disturbed individuals. It constitutes terrorist attacks from within the target nation, often Western...
, in their late teens to early twenties and from the Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
, suburbs, were detained during a police raid on a house with links to a militant group. The group is sometimes referred to as the D.C. 5 due to having lived in the D.C. Metro
Washington Metropolitan Area
The Washington Metropolitan Area is the metropolitan area centered on Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States. The area includes all of the federal district and parts of the U.S...
area.
Early in the ongoing investigation, officials described them as en route to fight against American forces in Afghanistan
Afghanistan
Afghanistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located in the centre of Asia, forming South Asia, Central Asia and the Middle East. With a population of about 29 million, it has an area of , making it the 42nd most populous and 41st largest nation in the world...
. The police chief of Sargodha
Sargodha
Sargodha is a city in the Sargodha District of Punjab province, Pakistan.Sargodha is located in the northwest of Pakistan. It is the eleventh largest city of Pakistan and also known as Pakistan's best citrus-producing area. It is an agricultural trade centre with various industries...
said the men had been in contact with local militant groups since August 2009. The men had offered their assistance in unspecified attacks. They were not initially accused of a crime. They had been missing from their home area for approximately a month prior to their detention.
On June 24, 2010, the five men were sentenced to 10 years imprisonment; both the defense and the prosecution are planning to appeal.
Overview
Washington Dulles International Airport
Washington Dulles International Airport is a public airport in Dulles, Virginia, 26 miles west of downtown Washington, D.C. The airport serves the Baltimore-Washington-Northern Virginia metropolitan area centered on the District of Columbia. It is named after John Foster Dulles, Secretary of...
and travelled to Karachi
Karachi
Karachi is the largest city, main seaport and the main financial centre of Pakistan, as well as the capital of the province of Sindh. The city has an estimated population of 13 to 15 million, while the total metropolitan area has a population of over 18 million...
, Pakistan, and then Hyderabad
Hyderabad, Sindh
is the second largest city in the Sindh province of Pakistan. It is the seventh largest city in the country. The city was founded in 1768 by Mian Ghulam Shah Kalhoro upon the ruins of a Mauryan fishing village along the bank of the Indus known as Neroon Kot...
, to Lahore
Lahore
Lahore is the capital of the Pakistani province of Punjab and the second largest city in the country. With a rich and fabulous history dating back to over a thousand years ago, Lahore is no doubt Pakistan's cultural capital. One of the most densely populated cities in the world, Lahore remains a...
, spending five days there, and finally to Sargodha. They landed in Karachi on November 20. One of the men had left an 11-minutes-long video expressing his view that Muslim lands must be defended against western "invaders," although it was not described as a martyrdom video typical amongst militants. According to investigators, the men had planned to meet a contact close to the Afghan border between Punjab and the North-West Frontier Province, and then to proceed to the stronghold of the Taliban and al-Qaeda
Al-Qaeda
Al-Qaeda is a global broad-based militant Islamist terrorist organization founded by Osama bin Laden sometime between August 1988 and late 1989. It operates as a network comprising both a multinational, stateless army and a radical Sunni Muslim movement calling for global Jihad...
. That contact turned out to be a Taliban recruiter named Saifullah, whom Minni had met on the internet after the latter posted remarks praising video footage on YouTube
YouTube
YouTube is a video-sharing website, created by three former PayPal employees in February 2005, on which users can upload, view and share videos....
showing attacks on American forces.
The house they were detained at is in Sargodha
Sargodha
Sargodha is a city in the Sargodha District of Punjab province, Pakistan.Sargodha is located in the northwest of Pakistan. It is the eleventh largest city of Pakistan and also known as Pakistan's best citrus-producing area. It is an agricultural trade centre with various industries...
in Punjab Province
Punjab (Pakistan)
Punjab is the most populous province of Pakistan, with approximately 45% of the country's total population. Forming most of the Punjab region, the province is bordered by Kashmir to the north-east, the Indian states of Punjab and Rajasthan to the east, the Pakistani province of Sindh to the...
, and was occupied by Khalid Farooq. Farooq is the father of one of the men, and is suspected of ties to Jaish-e-Muhammed
Jaish-e-Mohammed
Jaish-e-Mohammed is a Pakistani-based, militant Islamic group established by Maulana Masood Azhar in March 2000...
, a banned militant group to which the house itself is also linked, and was owned by the uncle of one of the men. According to the Federal Bureau of Investigation
Federal Bureau of Investigation
The Federal Bureau of Investigation is an agency of the United States Department of Justice that serves as both a federal criminal investigative body and an internal intelligence agency . The FBI has investigative jurisdiction over violations of more than 200 categories of federal crime...
(FBI), the men "were detained without incident."
Investigators stated that the men were en route to Afghanistan to fight on the side of the Taliban against U.S. and NATO forces. The investigators mentioned that the men had planned to go to South Waziristan
South Waziristan
South Waziristan is the southern part of Waziristan, a mountainous region of northwest Pakistan, bordering Afghanistan and covering some 11,585 km² . Waziristan comprises the area west and southwest of Peshawar between the Tochi River to the north and the Gomal River to the south, forming...
, a lawless region used by militant groups for training purposes, from Sargodha. Pakistani officials said that men were a security threat and that they had arrested before being able to mount an attack. A prosecutor in the case, Nadeem Akram Cheema, said, based upon their contact with a Taliban recruiter, "They wanted to be part of an operation. They and their handlers did not have enough time to plan a meticulous attack and were nabbed before they could."
The men have said they were en route to Afghanistan to perform charity and humanitarian work assisting Muslim refugees. Listed on their visa applications as the purpose of travel, however, was to attend a friend's wedding in Karachi
Karachi
Karachi is the largest city, main seaport and the main financial centre of Pakistan, as well as the capital of the province of Sindh. The city has an estimated population of 13 to 15 million, while the total metropolitan area has a population of over 18 million...
and sightsee in Lahore
Lahore
Lahore is the capital of the Pakistani province of Punjab and the second largest city in the country. With a rich and fabulous history dating back to over a thousand years ago, Lahore is no doubt Pakistan's cultural capital. One of the most densely populated cities in the world, Lahore remains a...
and Sargodha.
The suspects
Some of the suspects were born outside the U.S., but all are U.S. citizens. However, the U.S. embassy in Pakistan said one of them did not have a U.S. passport.They knew each other from the ICNA Center, a mosque affiliated with Islamic Circle of North America
Islamic Circle of North America
Islamic Circle of North America , formally chartered in 1971 but active since 1968, is an Islamic North American grassroots umbrella organization....
, in Arlington, Virginia
Arlington County, Virginia
Arlington County is a county in the Commonwealth of Virginia. The land that became Arlington was originally donated by Virginia to the United States government to form part of the new federal capital district. On February 27, 1801, the United States Congress organized the area as a subdivision of...
. ICNA is reportedly allied with the militant Islamic fundamentalist
Islamic fundamentalism
Islamic fundamentalism is a term used to describe religious ideologies seen as advocating a return to the "fundamentals" of Islam: the Quran and the Sunnah. Definitions of the term vary. According to Christine L...
organization of Jamaat-e-Islamiya
Jemaah Islamiyah
Jemaah Islamiah , is a Southeast Asian militant Islamic organization dedicated to the establishment of a Daulah Islamiyah in Southeast Asia incorporating Indonesia, Malaysia, the southern Philippines, Singapore and Brunei...
in Pakistan and Bangladesh. Steven Emerson
Steven Emerson
Steven Emerson, is an American journalist and author, who writes about national security, terrorism, and Islamic extremism.Emerson is the author of six books, and co-author of two more. His television documentary Jihad in America won the 1994 George Polk Award for best Television Documentary, and...
says that it has praised terror attacks, supports the imposition of shar'ia
Sharia
Sharia law, is the moral code and religious law of Islam. Sharia is derived from two primary sources of Islamic law: the precepts set forth in the Quran, and the example set by the Islamic prophet Muhammad in the Sunnah. Fiqh jurisprudence interprets and extends the application of sharia to...
(the Islamic code of law), and collects tax-deductible contributions (through charitable organizations that it has created) for Islamist causes. Also, in July 2002 Anwar al-Awlaki
Anwar al-Awlaki
Anwar al-Awlaki was an American and Yemeni imam who was an engineer and educator by training. According to U.S. government officials, he was a senior talent recruiter and motivator who was involved with planning operations for the Islamist militant group al-Qaeda...
, believed to be a senior talent recruiter and motivator for al-Qaeda who had contact with three of the 9/11 hijackers, the Fort Hood shooter
Fort Hood shooting
The Fort Hood shooting was a mass shooting that took place on November 5, 2009, at Fort Hood, the most populous U.S. military installation in the world, located just outside Killeen, Texas. In the course of the shooting, a single gunman killed 13 people and wounded 29 others...
, and the Christmas Day bombing suspect (Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab
Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab
Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab , popularly referred to as the "Underwear Bomber", is a suspected terrorist who attempted to detonate plastic explosives hidden in his underwear while on board Northwest Airlines Flight 253, en route from Amsterdam to Detroit, Michigan, on December 25,...
), spoke at a joint ICNA/MAS convention in Baltimore with Siraj Wahhaj
Siraj Wahhaj
Siraj Wahhaj is an African-American convert to Islam. He is imam of Al-Taqwa mosque in Brooklyn, New York and the leader of The Muslim Alliance in North America .-Early life:...
. ICNA was picketed in Texas in 2005 by ten anti-terrorism protesters who said it funds overseas terrorism, though its Dallas president had said "There's no evidence to support their claims."
The five were a "constant presence" at the mosque in "traditional Muslim dress." The men had been missing since late November 2009. Their families contacted local religious authorities, who then contacted the FBI
Federal Bureau of Investigation
The Federal Bureau of Investigation is an agency of the United States Department of Justice that serves as both a federal criminal investigative body and an internal intelligence agency . The FBI has investigative jurisdiction over violations of more than 200 categories of federal crime...
on December 1. Members of the mosque were unaware of the men's plans and they had not previously come to the attention of law enforcement agencies.
Their names are: Umer Farooq, Ramy Zamzam, Ahmed Abdullah, Waqar Khan, and Aman Yasir. Ahmed Abdullah was later identified as Ahmed Abdullah Minni.
- Umer Farooq is the son of Khalid Farooq, the occupant of the house in which they were detained. He lives on the same street as the mosque with his father and mother, Sabrina, who operates a computer business. Khalid, who immigrated to the US some 20 years ago, and Sabrina were in Sargodha when their son and the others showed up. He was initially detained as well, but later released.
- Ramy Zamzam, 22 (at the time of his detention), is from an EgyptEgyptEgypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...
ian family and is a dental student at the historically blackHistorically Black Colleges and UniversitiesHistorically black colleges and universities are institutions of higher education in the United States that were established before 1964 with the intention of serving the black community....
Howard UniversityHoward UniversityHoward University is a federally chartered, non-profit, private, coeducational, nonsectarian, historically black university located in Washington, D.C., United States...
, also having an undergraduate degree in biology and chemistry from the same university. He was active in the Muslim Students AssociationMuslim Students' AssociationThe Muslim Students Association, or Muslim Student Union, of the U.S. and Canada, also known as MSA National, is a religious organization dedicated to establishing and maintaining Islamic societies on college campuses in Canada and the United States. It serves to provide coordination and support...
D.C. Council, and was described by another college student he had met through the Council as "very devout; he wouldn’t date women,” but not explicitly political. He performed the HajjHajjThe Hajj is the pilgrimage to Mecca, Saudi Arabia. It is one of the largest pilgrimages in the world, and is the fifth pillar of Islam, a religious duty that must be carried out at least once in their lifetime by every able-bodied Muslim who can afford to do so...
in 2007, and returned "even more intensely observant." Pakistani Police described him as the leader of the group of five.
- Ahmed Abdullah Minni also lived on the same street as the mosque with his family, which runs a day care center. He is described as a "native of EritreaEritreaEritrea , officially the State of Eritrea, is a country in the Horn of Africa. Eritrea derives it's name from the Greek word Erethria, meaning 'red land'. The capital is Asmara. It is bordered by Sudan in the west, Ethiopia in the south, and Djibouti in the southeast...
". Minni was on the wrestling team at West Potomac High School in Virginia, where he was described as friendly and not at all disenfranchised.
- Waqar Khan, 22, was convicted a year before the arrests for stealing packages from UPSUnited Parcel ServiceUnited Parcel Service, Inc. , typically referred to by the acronym UPS, is a package delivery company. Headquartered in Sandy Springs, Georgia, United States, UPS delivers more than 15 million packages a day to 6.1 million customers in more than 220 countries and territories around the...
, where he had worked at the time. He was given a year-long suspended sentence, and served two months of supervised probation. He is of Pakistani descent.
- Aman Hassan Yasir's family is originally from either YemenYemenThe Republic of Yemen , commonly known as Yemen , is a country located in the Middle East, occupying the southwestern to southern end of the Arabian Peninsula. It is bordered by Saudi Arabia to the north, the Red Sea to the west, and Oman to the east....
or EthiopiaEthiopiaEthiopia , officially known as the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a country located in the Horn of Africa. It is the second-most populous nation in Africa, with over 82 million inhabitants, and the tenth-largest by area, occupying 1,100,000 km2...
.
Investigation
Punjab (Pakistan)
Punjab is the most populous province of Pakistan, with approximately 45% of the country's total population. Forming most of the Punjab region, the province is bordered by Kashmir to the north-east, the Indian states of Punjab and Rajasthan to the east, the Pakistani province of Sindh to the...
, Rana Sanaullah, said that the Pakistani government was interested in determining the group's affiliations before handing them over to U.S. officials and Pakistan’s interior minister, Rehman Malik
Rehman Malik
27 April 2009 He has been the interior adviser since 27 March 2008.Senator A. Rehman Malik is a Pakistani politician, member of the Senate of Pakistan, and the current Interior Minister of Pakistan under the Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani administration. His Second name is Shetan Malik and he...
, wanted them cleared of any crimes in Pakistan before any extradition. The police have confiscated the men's computers, cell-phones, and an iPod
IPod
iPod is a line of portable media players created and marketed by Apple Inc. The product line-up currently consists of the hard drive-based iPod Classic, the touchscreen iPod Touch, the compact iPod Nano, and the ultra-compact iPod Shuffle...
.
As of December 14, the high court of Lahore
Lahore
Lahore is the capital of the Pakistani province of Punjab and the second largest city in the country. With a rich and fabulous history dating back to over a thousand years ago, Lahore is no doubt Pakistan's cultural capital. One of the most densely populated cities in the world, Lahore remains a...
was awaiting further information in the case before ruling on the issue of the extradition of the five men, which the U.S. had not yet sought. Police involved in the case said the men had been in contact with militant groups since August 2009, and had offered to assist those groups in attacks.
Police initially accused to men of having contacts in al-Qaeda
Al-Qaeda
Al-Qaeda is a global broad-based militant Islamist terrorist organization founded by Osama bin Laden sometime between August 1988 and late 1989. It operates as a network comprising both a multinational, stateless army and a radical Sunni Muslim movement calling for global Jihad...
, a charge they denied. According to a lawyer for the defense, Hassan Dastgir Katchela, the prosectors case is based upon an alleged e-mail from an al-Qaeda
Al-Qaeda
Al-Qaeda is a global broad-based militant Islamist terrorist organization founded by Osama bin Laden sometime between August 1988 and late 1989. It operates as a network comprising both a multinational, stateless army and a radical Sunni Muslim movement calling for global Jihad...
operative to the men. The five men deny that there is such an e-mail. An Advocate, Ameer Abdullah Rokri, of the group said they had no plans to seek training in terrorist tactics and that they intended to go to Afghanistan to work with refugees there. , Pakistani authorities had made a number of allegations against the men, most notably of attempting to engage in terrorism and police were planning to seek life sentences. The five may be charged "waging war against Pakistan" and "planning terrorist attacks in the country."
In mid-January 2010, the men appeared in a special anti-terrorism court in Sargodha, where the police detailed the charges against them. Police officials presented the judge with a 250-page charge sheet which contained evidence that the men had met with the Jaish-e-Muhammed
Jaish-e-Mohammed
Jaish-e-Mohammed is a Pakistani-based, militant Islamic group established by Maulana Masood Azhar in March 2000...
militant group in Hyderabad
Hyderabad, Sindh
is the second largest city in the Sindh province of Pakistan. It is the seventh largest city in the country. The city was founded in 1768 by Mian Ghulam Shah Kalhoro upon the ruins of a Mauryan fishing village along the bank of the Indus known as Neroon Kot...
. According to a member of the police, Usman Anwar, the men admitted their desire to wage jihad
Jihad
Jihad , an Islamic term, is a religious duty of Muslims. In Arabic, the word jihād translates as a noun meaning "struggle". Jihad appears 41 times in the Quran and frequently in the idiomatic expression "striving in the way of God ". A person engaged in jihad is called a mujahid; the plural is...
and that they had donated money to banned militant groups. The men's legal representative, Khalid Khawaja
Khalid Khawaja
Squadron Leader Khalid Khawaja was a former Air Force officer, and the former Air Force's intelligence officer of the Pakistan's Inter Services Intelligence agency....
, said the men alleged that “they have been tortured and not treated properly”, an allegation they also shouted to reporters as they were led away from the court. Prison officials denied the allegations of torture. Anwar described the men as being "brainwashed
Mind control
Mind control refers to a process in which a group or individual "systematically uses unethically manipulative methods to persuade others to conform to the wishes of the manipulator, often to the detriment of the person being manipulated"...
" to the "jihadi" cause to the extent that they attempted to convert him to it.
Defense sought to have the men released on bail on the grounds of lack of evidence, however this request was rejected by the presiding judge, Anwar Nazeer. The trial was set for March 17, 2010, according to the public prosecutor, Naveed Akram Cheema and a Pakistani court has blocked the men's extradition. The hearing on March 17 was adjourned by Judge Anwar Nazeer until March 31. On March 31, a hearing in the Sargodha Jail was adjourned until April 17. A U.S. delegation was in attendance.
The Pakistani Government, on April 17, presented its evidence, including documents, phone logs, e-mails and 13 witnesses. In addition, they announced the name of the al-Qaeda-linked militant, Qari Saifullah Akhtar
Qari Saifullah Akhtar
Qari Saifullah Akhtar is an alleged member of Al-Qaeda currently in Pakistani custody. Akhtar, who is listed as a graduate of the Banuri mosque in Karachi, previously was the leader of Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami , a jihadi organization...
, that the five men have been accused of conspiring with. Akhtar is the leader of the Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami, a Pakistani militant group formed in the 1980s and suspects of having to ties to both al-Qaeda and the Taliban. Dastagir, a lawyer for the defense alleged the evidence had been fabricated by the police and said he would present evidence sufficient to prove the men's innocence.
Charges
The five young men were formally charged on Wednesday, March 17, 2010, in a closed hearing in Sargodha. Each of the charges against the five men are related to terrorism. According to Hassan Katchela, a defense lawyer, each of the five was charged with, as reported by The New York TimesThe New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
, five charges:
- plotting attacks in Afghanistan, an ally of Pakistan, which carries a life sentence
- planning attacks against allies of Pakistan and within Pakistan
- raising money to commit terrorism
- planning assaults on a Pakistani nuclear power plant
- planning attacks on Pakistani air force bases in Sargodha and MianwaliMianwaliMianwali is the capital city of Mianwali District and situated in the north-west of Punjab province, Pakistan. The city is located on the eastern bank of the Indus River...
The Wall Street Journal
The Wall Street Journal
The Wall Street Journal is an American English-language international daily newspaper. It is published in New York City by Dow Jones & Company, a division of News Corporation, along with the Asian and European editions of the Journal....
also reported five charges, adding "directing a person to commit a terrorist act," and without the last two reported by The Times and the second of them listed as two separate charges: "criminal conspiracy to commit terrorism in Pakistan [and] planning to wage war against a friendly country."
According to The Washington Post
The Washington Post
The Washington Post is Washington, D.C.'s largest newspaper and its oldest still-existing paper, founded in 1877. Located in the capital of the United States, The Post has a particular emphasis on national politics. D.C., Maryland, and Virginia editions are printed for daily circulation...
, six charges were brought against them, the five mentioned by The Times, in addition to directing a person or an organization to commit terrorist activities which also carries a possible life sentence. They were accused by the judge of directing one another to commit acts of terrorism.
The charges not carrying possible life sentences carry sentences of up to seven years. Nadeem Akram Cheema, a public prosecutor involved in the case said, "We will try to get the maximum punishment and we have all the evidence." That they were formally charges indicates that it is unlikely that they will be deported to the U.S. in the near future. The men plead not guilty and now await the next phase of the trial, a hearing on March 31, 2010 in which the prosecution will present its evidence against them. The men's Advocates expected the trial to go on for at least six months. and the case will be heard before a judge, in an anti-terrorism court in Sargodha.
Sentencing
On Thursday, June 24, 2010, Judge Mian Anwar Nazir found the five men guilty. The men were sentenced to 10 years imprisonment and fines of $823 for conspiring against the state and an additional 5 years for financing a militant organization; both sentences are scheduled to run concurrently. The men's lawyer, Hasan Katchela, described the men as disappointed in the sentence and planned to appeal saying, "We are surprised, we were not expecting this decision. The families want to challenge the verdict in high court." Rana Bukhtiar, the deputy prosecutor general of Punjab, said that the prosecutors in the case sought to appeal the sentencing to have it increased as they initially had sought the maximum penalty, 25 years in jail. The judge dismissed the remaining charges that had been leveled against the men including directing others to commit terrorism, which could have resulted in a sentence of life imprisonment. The FBI and other U.S. agencies were initially involved in the case, but a lawyer for the men's families, Nina Ginsburg, criticized what she claimed was "the lack of involvement by the U.S. government to protect the rights". A spokesman for the State Department, P.J. Crowley, said that embassy officials had monitored the progress of the case and that they have "met periodically with each individual and have not seen any evidence of mistreatment[... and] will continue to…support them during the appeals process."Torture allegations
According to Nihad AwadNihad Awad
Nihad Awad is the Executive Director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations .- Early life :Nihad Awad was born in Amman New Camp, a Palestinian refugee camp in Amman, Jordan. He studied at Second Amman Preparatory School for Boys, located at the camp and belongs to UNRWA, and at Salaheddine...
, the executive director of Council on American-Islamic Relations
Council on American-Islamic Relations
The Council on American-Islamic Relations is America's largest Muslim civil liberties advocacy organization that deals with civil advocacy and promotes human rights...
, said the families of each of the men had received letters from them each claiming they had been tortured. The alleged torture included beatings, threats of electrocution", deprivation of sleep, food and water and being choked by a guard. One of the men stated in letter dated March 10, "They beat the hell out of me and the rest of us until we said what they wanted us to say. Wallahi (by God) they even threatened to electrocute us the day before court so we don't tell the judge but we spoke out." The author of the letter was identified as Zamzam and Pakistani officials have not responded to the allegations made in it.
The men claimed that the torture was meted out by Pakistani Police and FBI agents, however, both U.S. and Pakistani authorities have denied those allegations. The men also claimed that the torture was directed by U.S. officials, which was denied by Pakistani prison official and the U.S. Consulate in Islamabad
Islamabad
Islamabad is the capital of Pakistan and the tenth largest city in the country. Located within the Islamabad Capital Territory , the population of the city has grown from 100,000 in 1951 to 1.7 million in 2011...
. "Skeptics" dismissed the men's claims as a response learned through terrorist training for the purpose of using claims of torture as propaganda. A defense Counsel, Hasan Dastagir, said, "My clients were in good shape and high spirits." On March 17, the men's defense lawyers requested an investigation of Pakistani police and intelligence agencies regards their clients treatments. Hassan Dastgir Katchela, a lawyer with the defense, stated that there had been no further instance of abuse in the month prior to March 18. The U.S. State Department
United States Department of State
The United States Department of State , is the United States federal executive department responsible for international relations of the United States, equivalent to the foreign ministries of other countries...
expressed their concerns of possible abuse to Pakistani officials previously, however, the U.S. Government is satisfied that the trial was progressing openly.
See also
- Michael FintonMichael FintonMichael C. Finton, also known as Talib Islam , a convert to Islam and a part-time cook at a fish and chicken restaurant, attempted to bomb the Paul Findley Federal Building and the adjacent offices of Congressman Aaron Schock in downtown Springfield, Illinois, on September 24, 2009...
, American convert to Islam, attempted September 2009 bombing of U.S. target with FBI agent he thought was al-Qaeda member - Sharif MobleySharif MobleySharif Mobley is a suspected al-Qaeda and al-Shabab member who was arrested in Yemen in March 2010 by counter-terrorism officers following a shooting in which he was allegedly the perpetrator. Mobley had moved to Yemen two years prior...
, American suspected al-Qaeda member, arrested in Yemen in 2010 and suspected of killing guard in escape attempt - Faisal ShahzadFaisal ShahzadFaisal Shahzad is a Pakistani American who attempted the May 1, 2010, Times Square car bombing. On , 2010, in Federal District Court in Manhattan he confessed to 10 counts arising from the bombing attempt...
, Muslim Pakistani-American who confessed to the 2010 Times Square car bomb attempt - Aafia SiddiquiAafia SiddiquiAafia Siddiqui is an American-educated Pakistani cognitive neuroscientist who was convicted of assault with intent to murder her U.S. interrogators in Afghanistan. The charges carried a maximum sentence of life in prison; in September 2010, she was sentenced by a United States district court to 86...
, alleged al-Qaeda member, former U.S. resident, convicted in 2010 of attempting to kill U.S. personnel - Bryant Neal VinasBryant Neal VinasBryant Neal Vinas is a Hispanic Muslim American convicted of participating in and supporting Al-Qaeda plots in Afghanistan and the U.S....
, American convert to Islam, convicted in 2009 of participating in/supporting Al-Qaeda plots in Afghanistan and the U.S. - Najibullah ZaziNajibullah ZaziNajibullah Zazi is an Afghan-American who was arrested in September 2009 as part of the 2009 U.S. Al Qaeda group accused of planning suicide bombings on the New York City subway system, and has pled guilty as have two other defendants. U.S...
, al-Qaeda member, U.S. resident, pleaded guilty in 2010 of planning suicide bombings on New York City subway system - Naser Jason AbdoNaser Jason AbdoNaser Jason Abdo is a Muslim US Army Private First Class who is currently being held without bond for possession of an unregistered firearm and allegedly planning to attack a restaurant frequented by soldiers from Fort Hood.-Early life:Abdo grew up in Garland, Texas and attended Richardson Terrace...
Allegedly attempted to bomb a Fort Hood restaurant in 2011. - Anwar al-AwlakiAnwar al-AwlakiAnwar al-Awlaki was an American and Yemeni imam who was an engineer and educator by training. According to U.S. government officials, he was a senior talent recruiter and motivator who was involved with planning operations for the Islamist militant group al-Qaeda...
American born Islamist cleric. - Hasan Akbar caseHasan Akbar caseThe Hasan Akbar case refers to an event in the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq, when Hasan Karim Akbar was convicted of the double-murder of two officers assigned to Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 1st Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division at Camp Pennsylvania, Kuwait.The victims were Army...
American Muslim convert convicted of the double-murder of two US Army officers. - Nidal Malik HasanNidal Malik HasanNidal Malik Hasan, USA is a United States Army officer and sole suspect in the November 5, 2009, Fort Hood shooting, which occurred less than a month before he would have deployed to Afghanistan....
, American Fort Hood shooter; 2009