Prosecutors: Two college students linked to Taliban suspects May 21, 2007
Posted by Scarecrow in 11/30/06 KHOU TV 5th.trackback
Prosecutors: Two college students linked to Taliban suspects
04:23 PM CST on Thursday, November 30, 2006
A federal grand jury has indicted two Texas college students for weapons charges.
Prosecutors said the two Pakistani natives are also connected to two men charged with having ties to the Taliban.
Shiraz Qazi, 25, appeared before Federal Magistrate Judge Calvin Botley on Thursday morning. The Pakistani citizen, in the United States legally under a student visa, was indicted under seal on Tuesday for possession of a firearm by an alien. Qazi is reportedly a student at the Houston Community College.
Federal prosecutors claim it is illegal for anyone in the United States on a student visa to have a weapon.
Public defender Tom Berg, who was just appointed to Qazi’s case Thursday, said that will be the argument, whether someone with a student visa can have a weapon and whether they were advised of it.
Another Pakistani college student, 19-year-old Sayed Maaz Shah, faces the same charge as Qazi. He is a sophomore enrolled in classes at the University of Texas’ Dallas campus. Shah is in custody in Dallas and has not yet had a hearing there. It is believed he will be transferred to Houston to face these charges.
Federal prosecutors said Shah and Qazi’s cases are related to two men arrested this week for conspiring to fight with the Taliban. Prosecutors would not divulge how they’re connected. Qazi’s attorney, Tom Berg, said he believed the men were at the shooting ranges together.
Qazi’s relatives did not comment outside court Thursday.
But 11 News has also learned Qazi is a cousin of Adnan Babar Mirza, 29, who was indicted last week for conspiring to fight with the Taliban against coalition forces in Iraq and Afghanistan. Mirza is also accused of overstaying his expired student visa and illegally possessing weapons. He does not yet have an attorney.
Arrested with Mirza is Kobie Diallo Williams, 33, a former lab technician at Rice University and student of Applied Science at the University of Houston-Downtown. Williams, who is a U.S. citizen, pleaded guilty Tuesday to one count of conspiring to train and fight with the Taliban against coalition forces in Iraq and Afghanistan. Williams is also accused of donating $350 to the Taliban in 2005 and 2006.
Williams will be sentenced Feb. 23, 2007, and could face up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine.
“The fact that these are low grade individuals and the fact that they publicize their arrests tells me one of two things. One either they’re very low grade and they don’t matter. Or they’re low grade but the government wants them to be disclosed publicly [so] perhaps we can tear up or get to other cells or rings,” said 11 News legal expert Gerald Treece.
Mirza and Qazi return to court for their arraignments Dec. 5.
A spokesman for the Pakistani Consulate said he was not familiar with the cases against its citizens.
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