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ATLANTA, Georgia: A US judge sentenced two Pakistani-Americans to 17 and 13 years in prison for conspiring to support terror groups by videoing US landmarks and sending the tapes abroad.
In the latest of a spate of cases that have raised fears that Islamic radicalisation is gaining momentum in the United States, Judge William Duffey was scathing in his final remarks in the courtroom in Atlanta, Georgia.
"I'll say this, our Gods are very different," Duffey told the first to be sentenced, Ehsanul Islam Sadequee. "This is a day of reckoning for you, Mr. Sadequee. This is to deter you and to deter others from this conduct."
Sadequee, 23, refused to stand when Duffey, a former US attorney, asked him several times to do so.
The judge had allowed him almost 45 minutes to explain why a harsh sentence should not be imposed, but the convicted terror plotter instead used the time to explain his religious beliefs.
"I have not and I will not request any sentence," said Sadequee. "It does not matter to me. I submit to no one's authority but to the authority of God."
Sadequee's friend Syed Haris Ahmed, a former student at Georgia Tech University, was sentenced to 13 years for conspiring to provide material support for terrorism in the US.
Duffey admonished Ahmed for not taking responsibility for his actions and suggested that he could have received a lighter sentence if he had repented.
"You and others have distorted the values of your faith. You are a myopic, self-interested person," the judge said.
Ahmed, 24, a thin man, slightly built, tried to interrupt Duffey during sentencing, but the judge scolded him and said, "the time for speaking is over, the time of reckoning is now."
Both Sadequee, who was born in Fairfax, Virginia and Ahmed, who moved to the US in the mid-1990s, were also sentenced to 30 years of supervised release following their jail time.
Ahmed and Sadequee were found guilty, in June and August respectively, of supporting terror groups by videotaping US landmarks, including the US Capitol and the headquarters of the World Bank, and sending the tapes overseas.
During the trial, prosecutors said the pair developed relationships over the Internet and maintained contact online, along with other "supporters of violent jihad" in the United States, Canada, Britain, Pakistan, Bosnia and beyond.
They traveled to Canada to meet other militants, including members of the "Toronto 18" Al-Qaeda-inspired group, and Sadequee went to Bangladesh, where he sent an email in 2001 when he was only 15 seeking to join the Taliban to fight US and coalition forces in Afghanistan.
Among the suspected terror operatives to whom they sent videos were Aabid Hussein Khan, a facilitator for the Pakistani militant groups Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Mohammad.
Prosecutors also told the jury that Sadequee tried to get into a terrorist training camp and that he also tried to recruit a 17-year-old Californian for martyrdom.
In the past year alone, there have been a dozen instances in the US of jihadist plots, attacks and other incidents, some involving homegrown radicals but others with direct links to extremist groups in Pakistan and Somalia.
"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," FBI Atlanta Special Agent Greg Jones said Monday.
David Headley, the Washington-born son of a Pakistani diplomat and an American woman, was charged last week with acting as a scout for the Pakistani group Lashkar-e-Taiba in the Mumbai attacks, and plotting the target of an attack in Denmark for another group.
"With their words and their actions, these defendants supported the wrongheaded but very dangerous idea that armed violence aimed at American interests will force our Government and our people to change our policies," said Acting US Attorney for the Northern District of Georgia Sally Quillian Yates.
"That is terrorism, and it will not succeed.
"The risk posed by men such as these defendants continues, both here and abroad," she said, reacting to Monday's sentences for Ahmed and Sadequee.
- AFP/yb
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