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| Fifth Column |
| Pakistani videotaper gets 6 months |
| 2005-01-26 |
| via JihadWatch Kamran Akhtar, suspected of having ties to terrorism after a police officer spotted him videotaping Charlotte's skyscrapers in July, was sentenced Monday to six months in prison. Chief Judge Graham Mullen of the U.S. District Court in Charlotte gave the 36-year-old Pakistan native credit for the time he's already served in jail. That means Akhtar will now be turned over to immigration officials for deportation. Akhtar has not been charged with any terrorism-related offenses, but he pleaded guilty in October to failing to leave the United States, possessing false identification documents and making false statements to investigators. Akhtar turned down an opportunity to speak during Monday's sentencing hearing. "Mr. Akhtar, do you have anything you would like to say?" the judge asked. "No, sir," Akhtar replied. U.S. Attorney Gretchen Shappert praised Charlotte-Mecklenburg police Officer Danny Maglione for spotting Akhtar filming uptown office towers. "We deeply appreciate the vigilance of Officer Maglione in this matter and the subsequent work of federal law enforcement," Shappert said. "We will continue to pursue such matters whenever appropriate." Defense attorney George Miller told reporters that Akhtar's wife and three children, who have been living in New York, will be reunited with his client in Pakistan. "He definitely misses his family," Miller said. "It's been six months since he's seen his daughters." Miller said he doesn't know how long it will be before Akhtar is deported. "Nobody knows how long it will be before he's returned to Pakistan. It won't happen tonight. Hopefully, it'll happen very soon." When Akhtar was detained in July, authorities announced that they had found a videotape in Akhtar's camera that showed the 60-story Bank of America tower and the former Wachovia Center, which houses the FBI's offices in Charlotte. Authorities said Akhtar also had tapes showing buildings in the downtown areas of Atlanta, New Orleans, Dallas, Houston and Austin, Texas. Akhtar's brother, Irfan Akhtar, told the Observer that Kamran Akhtar has been wrongfully accused and portrayed in the media as a terrorist. He said his brother is not a terrorist. Irfan Akhtar, 33, said his older brother likes to take pictures of tourists spots and buildings and had been traveling the country after losing his job at a New York photo store. Kamran Akhtar was indicted a month after his capture in Charlotte and charged with violating immigration law by failing to leave the United States in 1998 after a New York court found he was in the country illegally. The indictment accused Akhtar of making false statements to investigators that he was in the United States legally, had a green card and had never been ordered deported. He also was charged with possession of false documents -- a New York driver's license and a Social Security card. Federal prosecutors have said the investigation into Akhtar's activities is continuing. But after Monday's sentencing, Miller told reporters he's confident Akhtar isn't involved in terrorism and doesn't think his client will be charged with any terrorism-related offenses. The government, the defense lawyer said, has had six months to investigate Akhtar. "They've checked out everything they could check out," Miller said. "They would have discovered something if there was something to find." |
| Posted by:ed |