Pakistani court convicts five Americans
IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency
Islamabad, June 25, IRNA -- An anti-terrorism court in Pakistan on Thursday awarded 10-year jail term each to five American citizens over terror charges, a government lawyer said.
They had been arrested from a house in the Pakistani city of Sargodha, 190 km southeast of Islamabad, in December, last year.
The police accused them of contacting Pakistani militants groups and were planning terror attacks.
They had denied the charges and had told the court that they wanted to go to Afghanistan to help the sick people.
The anti-terror court judge Anwar Aziz announced the verdict inside prison in Sargodha in the presence of diplomats from the American embassy, deputy prosecutor Punjab province Rana Bakhtiar Ali told reporters after the verdict was announced.
The judge found Omar Farooq, Waqar Hussain, Ahmed Abdullah Mani, Mman Hasan and Rami Zamzam, all American citizens guilty of having links with terrorist groups in Pakistan.
Deputy Prosecutor Rana Bakhtiar said the five men were convicted on two counts each, with one carrying a 10-year sentence and the other carrying five years, to be served at the same time as. They were also fined a total of 70,000 rupees (approximately $821).
Bakhtiar said both these sentences will begin concurrently and in practice they will spend 10 years in jail.
He said the government appeal in the high court to enhance the sentence.
Hassan Katchela, a lawyer for the convicts, said that he will appeal against the conviction, saying that his clients do not have any links with terror groups and they wanted to serve the people in Afghanistan.
Bakhtiar told reporters that the court awarded the 10-year sentences for conspiracy and five years for raising funds. Several other charges were dropped.
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