Lakhani: Missiles, lies and videotape

When Briton Hemant Lakhani was arrested over a year ago it was hailed as a victory in the war on terror.

He was called a terrorist sympathiser by prosecutors, who charged him with attempting to smuggle surface-to-air missiles into the United States, which were to be used to shoot down airliners.

But just weeks before he stands trial, the Londoner has spoken out, insisting that he was the victim of an entrapment operation by intelligence agents.

According to court papers, Lakhani believed the missiles would be used to shoot down American airliners in a “jihad” operation by Islamic terrorists.

The prosecutor said Lakhani was a “true believer in the cause that America should be attacked”, and even President George Bush hailed the operation.

But it has emerged that there were never any real missiles, only one fake. Furthermore, they were sold to Lakhani by Russian intelligence and bought by the FBI in a sting operation.

“There was no missile, there was no buyer, there was no seller,” Lakhani said in Passaic County Jail, New Jersey, where he is being held awaiting trial.

“They were looking for somebody. After September 11, they couldn’t find or pick up anybody. The only way to find someone was to make a scapegoat.”

The 69-year-old strict Hindu, who was born in India before living in Britain for 45 years, has travelled the world chasing deals.

He started work in the garment business and had never been in trouble with the law until his desire to close a multi-million dollar deal led him into the shady world of arms trading.

In 2001 Lakhani was asked to use his global business links to find backers for a $1bn (€801.4m) Indian oil refinery project, from which he stood to make $2.5m (€2m).

Through contacts in India and the Middle East he was introduced to a man claiming to be a rich Saudi, living in America, who could provide backing for the oil company.

The Saudi turned out to be a career informant called Air Haji, also known as Mohammed Habib Rehman.

“He projected himself as a very wealthy multi-millionaire businessman. He claimed to know the Saudi Prince Abdullah and said he would invest in the oil project,” Lakhani explained.

Haji showed an interest in the oil company but before long he started asking Lakhani about arms deals.

It was shortly after September 11, and he told Lakhani that he represented the Ogaden Liberation Front, a rebel group seeking independence in a region between Somalia and Ethiopia.

In the past, Lakhani has made only one arms deal – the legal sale of 11 armoured personnel carriers to the government of Angola.

Haji said he was interested in shoulder-fired missiles. Lakhani, desperate to please his potential investor, promised to try to find the missiles.

By April 2002, Lakhani was struggling to find a seller and had virtually given up.

Then he received an unexpected call from a Saudi oil executive, who put him in touch with a man named Sergi in Ukraine.

Sergi, who is believed to have been working for Russian intelligence, said he could supply Lakhani with Igla shoulder-fired missiles.

Lakhani contacted Haji and was told to export the missile to the Middle East, from where it could be transported to America.

Haji told Lakhani that if he could complete the trade he would make “so much money… the floodgates will open”.

“He wanted 200 pieces. Twenty pieces to begin with and one sample,” Lakhani said, adding that the deal was worth 21 million dollars, of which he would take a cut.

Lakhani met Haji in September 2002 at a hotel overlooking Newark airport in New Jersey.

There, Haji told him that if he could get his hands on an Igla missile he would shoot down an aircraft.

His plan was to “ruin the American economy”, Lakhani said.

All of the conversations were being recorded by FBI agents.

According to the charges against Lakhani, he suggested that America would be shaken if 15 airliners were shot down. Lakhani denies making the comment.

Asked if he knew the sale was illegal, he said: “If you look at it that way, then yes.” But he added: “He wanted to entrap me. All along he wanted to entrap me.

“He was begging and begging me.

“He’d say I’ve got 20 million, I’ve got 10 million, I’ve got so many million. All these temptations and temptations.”

Every time Lakhani wavered, Haji called again, he said. In all, Haji made many dozens of phone calls to Lakhani urging him to complete the deal.

Lakhani eventually closed the deal with Sergi, and a fake missile was smuggled into the US.

In August 2003, Lakhani and Haji met again at the hotel in Newark to inspect the weapon.

Haji excused himself, and the room was stormed by FBI agents and Customs officers.

Following the arrest, prosecutor Chris Christie said that Lakhani was “a true believer in the cause that America should be attacked and that its citizens should be killed”.

But Lakhani’s lawyer, Henry Klingeman, argues that the case was a simple one of entrapment, that any person would have been tempted to get involved in a scheme which promised a multi-million dollar pay day.

“Now I’m in a trap and I don’t know how to get out,” Lakhani said.

“I’ve been a victim. I am the most unlucky man in the world.

“God will know if I’m innocent or guilty.”

He said of Haji: “He planned to entrap me from day one, to make money. And the government backed him utterly, to make me a scapegoat.

“Bad company corrupts good morals. And this is what happened to me.”

According to reports in the US, Haji has left a string of debts behind him. His main work has been as an informant for the FBI and, previously, the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA).

Furthermore, a retired DEA officer, Charles Lee, has said he wrote to the FBI urging them to stop using Haji because of concerns about his character.

Lakhani insists he is “100% certain” he will clear his name.

But then he sobs, burying his head in his hands, asking: “Where did I go wrong? I worked so hard. I worked hard, you have no idea. I like excitement in life, not money. I enjoyed my life.”

He said he was not a terrorist, just a businessman who got swept along with a deal.

Contrary to allegations that he praised the September 11 attacks, Lakhani said: “I think it was a tragedy, the loss of life, so many thousands of people. And every life, God has created.”

Lakhani now spends 12 hours a day working on his case. An entire wing has been set aside for him inside the overcrowded county jail.

A strict vegetarian, who does not drink or smoke, he rises at 7am, practises yoga and prays for half an hour.

The rest of his days are devoted to listening or watching to the 150 audio and eight video tapes which will be used in evidence against him.

He claims that the tapes have been poorly transcribed and some lines even invented.

His lawyer is seeking to have the tapes, which are in Urdu and Hindi, independently translated.

Lakhani is visited every month by his wife, Kusum, 67, whom he wed in an arranged marriage.

She is a social worker whose community centre near her home in Hendon, north London, was opened by Princess Diana.

His son Sanjay, 39, who is a clothing salesman in New York, also visits.

Lakhani’s trial is due to begin in December before US District Court Judge Katharine Hayden.

He faces up to 15 years in jail for “providing material support to terrorists” and a 10-year term for trying to supply a surface-to-air missile.