A Canadian has been sentenced to more than five years in prison for carrying 32 razor blades in his carry-on luggage to Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport. Prosecutors contend he was attempting to test airport security.
| Guess airport security worked, huh? |
Fazal Karim, 37, a naturalized Canadian from Pakistan, was sentenced Monday to 63 months in prison. U.S. District Judge Terry Means also ordered Karim to pay a $20,000 US fine and that he be turned over to immigration authorities for deportation after completing his sentence. Transportation Security Administration screeners on March 5, 2003, found 32 double-edged razor blades in Karim’s carry-on luggage, concealed in a box containing a coiled belt. Karim had attempted to enter a secure area of the airport to board a flight to Houston. FBI agents discovered that Karim was not a tourist as claimed but an immigrant without authorization to live in the U.S. A federal jury convicted Karim of carrying and attempting to carry concealed dangerous weapons in air transportation and of making false statements about his immigration status. Prosecutors contended that Karim had been attempting to evade and test airport security for potential terrorist aims. A federal agent testified during a November hearing that the names and phone numbers of the current directors of the civil aviation systems in Pakistan and the United Arab Emirates were found in Karim’s address book, 10 years after he worked as a computer programmer for the Pakistan Civil Aviation Authority. Karim has denied he had any terrorist ties.
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