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Man gets 24 years in terror conviction

He was found guilty of planning attacks on American targets.

By ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published September 11, 2007

SACRAMENTO, Calif. - A California man was sentenced to 24 years in federal prison Monday for attending an al-Qaida terrorist training camp in Pakistan and plotting to attack targets in the United States.

Hamid Hayat, a U.S. citizen who turned 25 on Monday, was convicted in April 2006 of providing material support to terrorists and lying about it to FBI agents. Prosecutors said he intended to attack hospitals, banks, grocery stores and government buildings.

Federal Judge Garland Burrell Jr. said Hayat had "returned to the United States ready and willing to wage violent jihad when directed to do so."

Hayat had no visible reaction when the sentence was read, and his family sat quietly in the back of the courtroom. Outside the courthouse, his relatives lashed out at the prosecution.

"We were expecting justice. We did not get justice," said Hamid Hayat's father, Umer.

The case began after an FBI informant befriended Hayat and began secretly tape-recording their conversations. During those talks, most of which were in Hayat's home, Hayat discussed jihad, praised al-Qaida and expressed support for religious governments in Pakistan and Afghanistan.

His lawyer, Wazhma Mojaddidi, has said those sentiments were nothing more than the idle chatter of a directionless young man with a sixth-grade education. She said the government had no proof he had attended a terrorist training camp.

Hayat's father also was caught up in the case, but a federal jury deadlocked on whether he had lied to federal agents about his son's attendance at the camp

The case against the Hayats grew from a wider federal inquiry into the 2,500-member Pakistani community in Lodi, a farming and grape-growing region about 35 miles south of the state capital. That inquiry began shortly after the 2001 terror attacks. Two Muslim clerics were later deported for immigration violations.

[Last modified September 11, 2007, 01:19:38]