Pakistani tied to terror plot gets 10 months on gun charge May 17, 2007
Posted by Scarecrow in 05/17/07 Houston Chronicle 12.trackback
Pakistani tied to terror plot gets 10 months on gun charge
© 2007 The Associated Press
HOUSTON — A Pakistani student was sentenced Thursday to 10 months in prison for firing weapons during a camping trip with men who have been charged with conspiracy to join the Taliban and fight the U.S.
Shirz Syed Qazi, 26, was convicted in January of possession of a firearm by an alien during what prosecutors called a paramilitary training exercise being conducted by the four Muslim men. Informants photographed them firing the guns.
Qazi, who will get credit for the nearly six months already served in jail, will probably be deported after his sentence, U.S. District Judge Lee Rosenthal said. The judge sentenced Qazi to the low end of the sentencing guidelines, which ranged from 10 to 15 months.
“This defendant was (shooting) weapons with people who were intent on engaging in Jihad against the United States,” said federal prosecutor Shelley Hicks.
During his sentencing hearing, Qazi, who was a student at Houston Community College, said he always strived to obey the law and had never been in trouble.
“We are all against (Jihad). We never would think about that,” Izzat Qazi, his older brother, said after the sentencing. “Our religion teaches us to have respect for all other religions.”
Qazi’s defense attorney, public defender Brent Newton, argued his client should receive a lower sentence in part because he is being incarcerated under strict and unfair conditions where he is segregated from other prisoners.
“He has been at the highest level of security,” Newton said. “They treat him like (Oklahoma City bomber) Timothy McVeigh when he’s been charged with possession of a firearm.”
Hicks said the security measures Qazi is facing are for his own protection from other inmates who might want to do something to him because of what he was accused of doing.
Newton also argued Qazi should not be punished for holding a gun because he was not aware of changes to immigration law in 1998 that made it illegal for someone like him to have such a weapon.
Under federal law, a non-immigrant with a student visa such as Qazi can’t have firearms or ammunition.
Rosenthal rejected Newton’s argument but took into account Qazi’s lack of criminal history and his “sympathetic” family situation — his wife is pregnant — in deciding on a sentence.
Two of the men who were arrested with Qazi, Adnan Babar Mirza and Kobie Diallo Williams, were charged with conspiracy to join the Taliban and fight U.S. forces.
Mirza, a 29-year-old Pakistani who overstayed a student visa, also is charged with three counts of violating federal firearms laws. Mirza, who is Qazi’s cousin, is set for trial Oct. 29 and faces from five to 10 years for each charge.
Williams, 33, a U.S. citizen, pleaded guilty to conspiracy and is set to be sentenced Oct. 12. He faces up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine.
The fourth man, Syed Maaz Shah, a 19-year-old Pakistani student at the University of Texas at Dallas, also was charged with possession of a firearm by an alien and is scheduled for trial next week. He faces up to 10 years in prison.
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