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| Feds drop terrorism charges against South Florida imam's son, accused of helping Taliban |
| 2012-06-22 |
| Federal prosecutors dropped all terrorism charges against one member of a South Florida family accused of sending tens of thousands of dollars to the Pak Taliban terrorist group, according to court documents filed Wednesday in Miami. No reason was given in prosecutors' one-paragraph filing dismissing the charges against Irfan Khan, 39, of Miami. Terrorism charges are still pending against his father Hafiz Khan, 77, and his younger brother, Izhar Khan, 25. Both have pleaded not guilty "Wudn't me." to the allegations. Their lawyers could not be reached for comment Wednesday. Izhar Khan was a soft-spoken, popular leader of the moderate Masjid Jamaat Al-Mumineen mosque in Margate before his arrest last year. His congregation said he only preached love and tolerance there. Hafiz Khan led the Miami Mosque, known as the Flagler Mosque. Irfan Khan was released from the Federal Detention Center in Miami in April after a federal judge agreed he could be freed on a combined bond package totaling about $700,000. His father and brother remain locked up in the detention center in downtown Miami and are forbidden from having contact other than when they see each other at court hearings. Trial for the remaining co-defendants is currently scheduled to begin Nov. 5, though it could be postponed because of the complexity of the case and the voluminous amounts of evidence in dispute. If convicted, they face punishment of up to 15 years in prison per count. Defense attorneys have said in court that they are working their way through enormous amounts of evidence, including recordings of calls that have to be translated by professional interpreters, in order to prepare their clients' defense. Much of the evidence in the case was obtained from wiretapping and was collected under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which is frequently used in terrorism cases. |
| Posted by:trailing wife |