Ex-London student in terror plea deal

An American student extradited from Britain admitted on the eve of his terrorism trial that he helped a friend deliver protective clothing to an al Qaida commander in Afghanistan.

The plea by Syed Hashmi to a single count of conspiracy to provide material support to al Qaida was entered in US District Court in Manhattan, averting a trial that was supposed to begin today.

As part of a plea deal that will require prosecutors to drop three other terrorism charges at his June 7 sentencing, Hashmi, 30, agreed to serve 15 years in prison.

He has already served four years, at least three of them in solitary confinement at a federal jail in lower Manhattan.

Hashmi had faced up to 70 years in prison if convicted of four criminal counts.

“He’ll be out of prison before he’s 40 and have his whole life in front of him,” defence lawyer David Ruhnke said outside court.

Hashmi, born in Karachi, Pakistan, was raised in New York and obtained his bachelor’s degree in political science from Brooklyn College before moving to London in 2003 to study at London Metropolitan University, where he got a master’s degree in international relations in 2006.

The US government’s handling of Hashmi has been accompanied by an unusual outpouring of support from family, friends and civil rights groups that insisted he was being prosecuted because he had been outspoken against US policies in the Middle East.

Prosecutors had planned at his trial to show jurors an excerpt of a five-minute video they say showed Hashmi leading a June 2002 protest in Manhattan by an Islamic fundamentalist organisation whose members support al Qaida and seek the overthrow of Western society.

The government said Hashmi, among other things, said: “Bin Laden is not a terrorist.”

Defence lawyers in papers submitted in the case had noted that the trial was take place just streets from the site of the World Trade Centre attacks in 2001.

“It is highly likely, if not guaranteed, that every member of the jury will have a strong negative reaction to the rhetoric attributed to Mr Hashmi,” the lawyers said.

Hashmi was arrested in June 2006 at Heathrow Airport in London as he was about to board a flight to Pakistan. A year later, he became the first individual to be extradited from the United Kingdom to the US on terrorism charges.

Yesterday, Hashmi, in his prison blue uniform and white skullcap, smiled as he entered the court. He displayed his religious enthusiasm several times when he answered questions from Judge Loretta Preska.

“By the grace of Allah, yes,” he said as he answered one question. “All praise to Allah, no,” he said in answer to another.

Answering a series of “yes” and “no” questions, he admitted he knew that a friend who stayed with him in January 2004 for two weeks was storing some ponchos, waterproof socks and sleeping bags to be delivered to al Qaida.

Mr Ruhnke asked if he knew al Qaida was designated a terrorist organisation by the US.

“Yes I did,” he answered.

He also admitted providing money to his friend to obtain a plane ticket to fly to Pakistan and deliver the goods to the military commander who would relay them to fighters in Afghanistan.

“Did you understand, Mr Hashmi, that those actions were unlawful?” the judge asked.

“Yes,” Hashmi answered.

After the plea was accepted by the judge, Hashmi shook hands with his three defence lawyers before he was handcuffed and led out of the court.

George Venizelos, the FBI’s special agent in charge of the New York office, called the plea “a good outcome”.