| Submit your comments on this article |
| Home Front: WoT |
| NY case ends for al-Qaeda supporter |
| 2005-11-22 |
| Closing arguments were given on Monday in the case of a Pakistani accused of aiding al Qaeda, with the prosecution and defense debating whether prolonged questioning by FBI agents produced a false confession by the accused man. Uzair Paracha, 25, is charged with agreeing to smuggle travel documents and pose as al Qaeda member Majid Khan, who prosecutors believe was planning to blow up gas stations in the United States. If convicted in U.S. District Court, Paracha faces a maximum of 15 years on each of the five charges he faces. Paracha testified that he confessed to FBI agents that he helped Khan after three days of questioning in March 2003 because he was scared and wanted to go home. Prosecutors say Paracha attended several meetings with his father Saifullah Paracha and al Qaeda members Khan and Ammar al-Baluchi and that he agreed to mail travel documents to Khan in Pakistan, knowing the men were al Qaeda members. "He (Paracha) decided to help an al Qaeda operative get into the United States, and he did so knowing that that terrorist was coming with one purpose -- to kill Americans," prosecutor Karl Metzner said during closing arguments. The prosecutor said "the heart of this case comes down to one question" -- whether Paracha knew Khan and al-Baluchi were al Qaeda members. "The answer is simple. He knew. He wasn't lying," said Metzner. "What he said on that witness stand doesn't change that fact one little bit." Defense attorney Edward Wilford called Paracha a "dupe in every sense of the word." "His street smarts and common sense were not that sharp," his attorney said. "He told you he did not know, did not participate, was not a part of any al Qaeda plot." Paracha was strip-searched and deprived of food, sleep and contact with his family during the three days of questioning, the attorney said. "These conditions were ideal to create a false confession," he said. The defense attorney urged jurors to believe statements made by Khan and al-Baluchi to U.S. authorities, submitted during the trial, that said neither Paracha nor his father knew either one was an al Qaeda member or knew of a chemical attack plot. Both Khan and al-Baluchi are being held in U.S. custody in undisclosed locations, and Saifullah Paracha has been held for two years in U.S. prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, after being arrested in Bangkok in 2003. Jurors are expected to begin deliberations on Tuesday. |
| Posted by:Dan Darling |