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| Hayat reaches guilty plea deal with prosecutors |
| 2006-06-01 |
| Federal prosecutors in Sacramento announced Wednesday that they had obtained a guilty plea from a Pakistani-American ice cream truck driver who was accused of lying to the authorities during a terrorism investigation. The driver, Umer Hayat, agreed to plead guilty to lying to the Federal Bureau of Investigation and customs officials about how much money he was carrying on a trip from California to Pakistan in 2003, said McGregor W. Scott, a United States attorney for the Eastern District of California. Mr. Hayat had told officials during a stopover in Washington that he and his family were carrying less than $10,000, while prosecutors said the amount was more than $28,000. Mr. Hayat, 48, had been expected to face trial next week on more serious charges of lying to federal investigators in relation to his son, Hamid, who was convicted on April 25 of lying to federal agents and providing material support to terrorists by attending a training camp of Al Qaeda in 2003. A separate jury had deadlocked on charges against the elder Mr. Hayat on the same day, but prosecutors had sought to retry him. The plea puts at least a temporary end to an inquiry that disrupted the rural town of Lodi, where the Hayats live in a close-knit Muslim community. It also brings to a close a federal prosecution that raised questions about government interrogation techniques. Both Hayats had submitted confessions to investigators despite limited English, an element that some legal experts say could open their convictions to appeal. In a statement on Wednesday, Mr. Scott, the prosecutor, seemed to strike a victorious note. "After 9/11, the U.S. Justice Department's top priority is to detect, disrupt, and deter future acts of terrorism," he said. "This mission was accomplished." In exchange for his plea, federal officials said they would dismiss all previous charges and recommend that Umer Hayat receive a sentence of three years supervised release. Since his arrest in 2005, Mr. Hayat has served 330 days in jail and 30 days of home confinement, prosecutors said. Sentencing is Aug. 18. |
| Posted by:Dan Darling |
| #2 Mr. Hayat is merely a terrorist. In the olden days the ice cream truck drivers used to deal drugs. |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2006-06-01 19:09 |
| #1 damn ice cream truck drivers, can't trust em. |
| Posted by: Captain America 2006-06-01 00:38 |