Two American nationals linked to Pakistan-based LeT and JeM were on Tuesday sentenced to 13 and 17 years in prison respectively by a US court for supporting terror groups and providing them with material aid for attacks in the United States and abroad.
Two American nationals linked to Pakistan-based LeT and JeM were on Tuesday sentenced to 13 and 17 years in prison respectively by a US court for supporting terror groups and providing them with material aid for attacks in the United States and abroad.
US District Judge William Duffey Jr of federal court in Atlanta sentenced Pakistan-origin Syed Haris Ahmed (25) of Atlanta and Bangladesh-American Ehsanul Islam Sadequee (23) of Roswell, Georgia, following their convictions earlier this year in separate but related criminal trials.
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Like David Coleman Headley and Tahawwur Rana the two arrested and chargesheeted by the FBI for being involved in the Mumbai terrorist attack -- Sadequee and Ahmed too were in contacts with the leaders of Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM). However unlike Headley, who sent video footage and photographs of possible LeT targets in India, Sadequee and Ahmed sent video clips of possible LeT targets in the US.
Judge Duffey Jr sentenced Sadequee to a term of 17 years in prison, to be followed by 30 years of supervised release. He sentenced Ahmed to 13 years in prison, also to be followed by 30 years of supervised release. "This is not about your faith," Judge Duffey Jr told them. "This is about your conduct. This is about the rule of law in this country that you have decided does not apply to you."
"The radicalisation of US citizens by jihadist recruiters abroad is a very real and growing concern that the FBI and the US Government as a whole must deal with," said FBI Atlanta Special Agent in Charge Greg Jones in a statement.
Born in Fairfax, Virginia, in 1986, Sadequee attended school in the US, Canada and Bangladesh. In December 2001, while living in Bangladesh, he sought to join Taliban, to help them fight against US and coalition forces in Afghanistan.
Federal prosecutors said Sadequee and Ahmed began discussing their obligation to support jihad in late 2004. By this time, both Sadequee and Ahmed had become active on several web forums known to support the cause of jihad. These discussions quickly grew into an active conspiracy with others to provide material support to terrorists engaged in violent jihad.
The evidence indicated that the material support consisted of first Sadequee, Ahmed and other individuals who intended to provide themselves as personnel to engage in jihad and second property, namely, video clips of potential targets in the Washington, including the US Capitol, the World Bank headquarters, the Masonic Temple, and a fuel tank farm - all of which were taken by Sadequee and Ahmed to be sent to the jihadi brothers abroad.
In support of the conspiracy, in March 2005 Sadequee and Ahmed traveled to Toronto to meet with other co-conspirators, including Fahim Ahmad, one of the Toronto 18 suspects awaiting a terrorism trial in Canada.
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