US judge denies bail to extradited terror suspect

A US judge has denied bail to an American student extradited from Britain on charges that he was involved in a conspiracy to equip al-Qaida fighters.

Defence lawyers for 27-year-old Syed Hashmi say he was just doing a favour for an acquaintance by letting him store ponchos, waterproof socks and rain coats in his London flat for a few days in 2004.

But prosecutors insist that Pakistani-born Hashmi knew the bad-weather gear was heading for al-Qaida operatives in Pakistan and was intended to help them stay warm and dry while battling US forces in Afghanistan.

At yesterday’s bail hearing, Hashmi’s lawyer, Sean Maher, asked Judge Loretta Preska in Manhattan to allow his client to await trial under house arrest at his parents’ home in the New York borough of Queens, where he grew up.

“He is not going to be a threat to anyone in the community,” Maher said.

But Judge Preska ordered Hashmi be held without bail after prosecutors argued that he was an extremist who opposed secular rule in the US and had joined a political organisation that raised money for the militant Islamic groups Hezbollah and Hamas.