[Stars and Stripes] RAMSTEIN AIR BASE, Germany ‐ Capt. Sharior Rahman, an imam at Ramstein Air Base and one of only a handful of Muslim clerics in the Air Force, was convicted by a military judge Tuesday of larceny and conspiracy to commit larceny in a shoplifting incident last year.The judge, Col. Mark Milam, ordered the chaplain to forfeit $3,000 of his pay for one month but did not dismiss him from the service.
Whether Rahman will remain in the chaplaincy with a general court-martial conviction still needs to be determined by the organization that endorsed him as a military chaplain, officials said.
The charges stem from a shopping trip last year at an Edeka store in Homburg, where Rahman and his wife, Sanam, a civilian, shoplifted about 70 euros worth of groceries, according to court testimony. A second shoplifting involving the couple occurred two weeks later at the Exchange on Ramstein, though no criminal charges were filed in the latter incident.
Sharior Rahman pleaded not guilty to the larceny charges in the Edeka case, which occurred on Nov. 11, 2016, and requested a trial before a military judge alone. Milam announced his verdict Tuesday afternoon, after about a day and a half of testimony.
Rahman, a former Navy medic who has nearly 20 years of military service, could have faced a possible maximum punishment of dismissal from the Air Force, up to a year in prison, forfeiture of all pay and allowances, and a fine.