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| Umer Hayat to be retried |
| 2006-05-06 |
| Federal prosecutors said Friday that they would retry a California man on charges that he lied to F.B.I. agents about his son's stay at a terrorist training camp in Pakistan. The man, Umer Hayat, a naturalized American citizen, has been free on bail since Monday after a federal jury in Sacramento deadlocked on the charges against him. A mistrial was declared on April 25, the same day a separate jury convicted his son, Hamid Hayat, of lying to federal agents and providing material support to terrorists by attending a camp of Al Qaeda in 2003. McGregor W. Scott, a United States attorney in Sacramento, said in a statement on Friday that the severity of the charges against the elder Mr. Hayat, and evidence that included a videotaped confession, warranted a second trial. "In the post-9/11 environment in which we live, lying to the F.B.I. in the course of a terrorism investigation is serious misconduct," Mr. Scott said. "False information may result in agents losing valuable time to foil a deadly plot, or perhaps bringing the wrong person or persons under suspicion." The new trial is set to begin June 5 in federal court in Sacramento. Mr. Hayat's defense lawyer, Johnny Griffin III, said the government's decision to retry his client, who initially volunteered to speak with F.B.I. agents, would not advance its war on terror. "In pursuing this fight, the government needs information, eyes and ears in the community," Mr. Griffin said. "But people will be less apt to talk now." Mr. Griffin said the government had alienated the Muslim community in its handling of Mr. Hayat's case. "To now go back and retry it sends a message," he said. "If you cooperate and we don't like what you are saying or we don't believe you, we will prosecute." The jury in the elder Mr. Hayat's trial, which lasted nine weeks, deadlocked 7 to 5 and 6 to 6 on the two counts against him. Umer Hayat, 48, an ice cream vendor, and his son, Hamid, 23, live in Lodi, Calif., a small farming town south of Sacramento. |
| Posted by:Dan Darling |