wmlro.com - jail for support for terrorists
A court in the USA has sentenced Ehsanul Islam Sadequee of Roswell, Georgia, to 17 years in prison followed by 30 years of supervised release and Syed Haris Ahmed of Atlanta to 13 years in prison followed by 30 years of supervised release. But "support" wasn't about the money.
The case emphasises the difference between "support" and "material support."
The two were part of a cell of radicals who were not alleged in court to be aligned to any of the well-known groups. Sadequee, 23, US born, and Ahmed, 24, a Pakistani-born, naturalised US citizen, had travelled to Canada where they met and "trained with" members of a faction calling themselves "Toronto 18." When aged 15, Sadequee wrote an e-mail trying to find out how to join the Taliban to fight, in Afghanistan, against the US and allied forces there.
"These defendants, who conducted surveillance of potential terror targets at home and pursued terrorist training overseas, were part of an online network that connected extremists in North America, Europe and South Asia," said David Kris, Assistant Attorney General for the National Security Division.
But there were no allegations that they provided money or materials in preparation for any terrorist act.
Nor that they were engaged in preparation.
Indeed, most of their activity appears to have been little more than contributing to radical chat rooms and websites, posting messages urging jihad (without defining it) and encouraging "Islamist" violence. Their contacts were in the USA, Canada, the UK, other parts of Europe and elsewhere.
The two were convicted in June and August respectively. Evidence included that they had videotaped landmarks including the World Bank and the US Capitol building and sent the tapes overseas in furtherance of violent objectives.
U.S. District Court Judge William Duffey sitting in the Atlanta District Court sentenced the men. After Sadequee spent 45 minutes justifying his actions by reference to his beliefs, Duffey said "I'll say this, our Gods are very different."
He told Ahmed ""You and others have distorted the values of your faith. You are a myopic, self-interested person."
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