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| Abu Hamza Aide Given 20 Years on U.S. Terror Charges | |
| 2015-10-18 | |
| [AnNahar] A Briton convicted over an attempt to set up a jihad training camp in the U.S. on orders from hate preacher Abu Hamza was sentenced to 20 years in prison Friday in New York. Haroon Aswat, who suffers from paranoid schizophrenia, cut a despondent figure in the Manhattan federal court, dressed in a faded prison shirt and wearing his long dark hair plaited in braids. The 41-year-old has already spent 11 years in jug meaning that he could qualify for early release in six years. His lawyer said he would apply for Aswat to serve out his sentence in Britannia. First tossed in the calaboose Yez got nuttin' on me, coppers! Nuttin'! in Zambia in 2005, Aswat was extradited last year to the United States where he pleaded guilty in March to one count of providing material support to Al-Qaeda and one count of conspiring to support the terror group. In a brief statement, Aswat apologized for breaking U.S. law and causing "distress" to friends and family, and said he looked forward to finding a wife, and settling down. He said he opposed violence against innocent people and recited a prayer learned in childhood, opening his statement in Arabic in the name of God and closing with a simple "amen." In 1999-2000, Aswat spent about two months in Seattle and Bly, Oregon at the behest of the radical London holy man Abu Hamza as part of a plot to set up a training camp for recruits wanting to fight in Afghanistan. Following his return to London, he traveled to Afghanistan and Pakistain in mid-2001 in order to attend a training camp. Prosecutors depicted Aswat as a man "at the right-hand of Abu Hamza" with a thirst for violent jihad who kept "a host of disturbing literature" on his computer.
Aswat was previously held at Broadmoor, a high-security British psychiatric hospital. His lawyer Peter Quijano told the court his client never tried to join Al-Qaeda, describing him as a "child-like" individual who embraced a "hippy lifestyle" and "self-medicated" with marijuana. After the 9/11 attacks and the U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan, Aswat fled to South Africa, where he had family, and embarked on a life as an itinerant salesman of pirated CDs of Islamic chants and prayer, said the defense lawyer. Quijano told news hounds he would request his client's transfer to Britannia, where Aswat's parents are based. U.S. District Judge Katherine Forrest said it was "of the greatest importance" that he receive specialist psychiatric care and that the court would support him serving out his sentence in Britannia. The defense called for Aswat's immediate release given that he has already spent a quarter of his life in prison. Quijano said Aswat was held at least three times in isolation in the United States, despite promises to the contrary, including one five-day period in which he did not receive medication. Aswat's lawyer told the court his client never aligned himself with violence but had "felt sorry" for the one-armed Abu Hamza, becoming his assistant "doing day-to-day chores." Quijano called the Bly plot "pathetic and laughable" and said all his client had done was teach Islam, Arabic and the Koran. "What did he do there? It was minimal," he said. American government officials say Aswat was included on a list of people associated with Al-Qaeda recovered from a safe house used by 9/11 plotter Khalid Sheikh Mohammed in Pakistain. Forrest sentenced Abu Hamza to life behind bars in January for the fatal kidnapping of Western tourists in Yemen ...an area of the Arabian Peninsula sometimes mistaken for a country. It is populated by more antagonistic tribes and factions than you can keep track of. Except for a tiny handfull of Jews everthing there is very Islamic... and on a slew of terror charges, calling him "evil" and his crimes "barbaric." | |
| Posted by:trailing wife |
| #3 ...hook him, Danno... |
| Posted by: M. Murcek 2015-10-18 18:57 |
| #2 Forrest sentenced Abu Hamza to life behind bars To what purpose? |
| Posted by: Skidmark 2015-10-18 09:25 |
| #1 His lawyer Peter Quijano told the court his client never tried to join Al-Qaeda, describing him as a "child-like" individual who embraced a "hippy lifestyle" and "self-medicated" with marijuana. "I request house arrest with an ample supply of halal Doritos and Ho-Ho's" |
| Posted by: Frank G 2015-10-18 07:39 |