Author: Associated Press
Publication: NDTV.com
Date: March 4, 2013
URL: http://www.ndtv.com/article/world/south-florida-imam-found-guilty-of-financially-aiding-taliban-terrorists-in-pakistan-338190?pfrom=home-topstories

An elderly Muslim cleric in the U.S. was convicted Monday of funneling thousands of dollars to support the Pakistani Taliban terror organization.

Hafiz Khan, the 77-year-old imam at a Miami mosque, was found guilty of two conspiracy counts and two counts of providing material support to terrorists. Each charge carries a potential 15-year prison sentence.

Prosecutors built their case largely around hundreds of FBI recordings of conversations in which Khan expressed support for Taliban attacks and discussed sending about $50,000 to Pakistan. There were also recordings in which Khan appeared to back the overthrow of Pakistan's government in favor of strict Islamic law, praised the killing of American military personnel and praised the failed 2010 attempt to detonate a bomb in New York's Times Square.

Khan insisted the money he sent overseas was for family, charity and business reasons - above all, his religious school, known as a madrassa, in Pakistan's Swat Valley. Khan also said he repeatedly lied about harboring extremist views to obtain $1 million from a man who turned out to be an FBI informant wearing a wire to record their talk.

"That is not supporting terrorism," said Khan attorney Khurrum Wahid in a closing argument. "That is an old guy running a scam, who got scammed."

Prosecutors, however, said the purported $1 million offer is never heard on any tapes, and no other witnesses testified about its existence. The informant, identified in court papers as Mahmood Siddiqui, did not testify.

"That is an absurd story," Assistant U.S. Attorney John Shipley said. "This whole defense is a lie."

Two of Khan's sons, Izhar and Irfan, were cleared of all charges, and three more defendants have remained free in Pakistan, which does not extradite its citizens to face U.S. criminal charges.

One of those in Pakistan, Ali Rehman, testified via video link that he was not a Taliban fighter, as U.S. prosecutors claim. He said he handled more than $30,000 in financial transactions for Khan, mainly to invest in a potato chip factory run by Khan's son-in-law.