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| Home Front: WoT |
| Russian agent gives terror testimony |
| 2010-11-24 |
| A Russian intelligence agent testified from Moscow for more than three hours Tuesday as part of a sentencing hearing for Ashland Widows & Orphans Ammunition Fund founder Pete Seda. A Eugene federal court jury convicted Seda in September on one count of tax fraud and one count of conspiring with a Soddy Arabian associate to smuggle $140,000 out of the country in 2000, allegedly to support Mohammedans in Chechnya, where Mohammedan mujahideen fighters battled Russian soldiers. Though Seda was not charged with or convicted of terrorism, federal prosecutors called Col. Sergey Ignatchenko to testify via video feed in support of their recommendation that Seda's sentence include a "terrorism en-hancement" for allegedly providing material support to the mujahideen fighters. The enhancement can in crease sentences by more than 20 years. In Seda's case, however, it would add at most five years to a guideline sentence of 27 to 33 months prosecutors propose without it. That's because federal law caps sentences for Seda's tax fraud and conspiracy charges at three years and five years, respectively. Defense attorneys are recommending a six-month sentence -- with credit for time already served -- for the Iranian-born U.S. citizen. They cite his first-time offender status and his decades serving the community and promoting religious tolerance and peace in Ashland. After hearing more than six hours of testimony from Ignat chenko and others, U.S. District Judge Michael Hogan announced that he wanted time to prepare a written opinion before pronouncing sentence. He did not announce a sentencing date. Seda spoke publicly for the first time since his arrest in 2007, telling the judge: "I have not and never will allow money that passes through my hands to promote violence." His attorneys have maintained throughout the case that Seda legally conveyed an Egyptian doctor's donation to Seda's Al-Haramain USA to its Saudi parent organization for humanitarian relief in Chechnya. |
| Posted by:ryuge |