City suspect acquitted of terrorism charges

HYDERABAD: Mohammad Jaweed Azmath, one of the two Hyderabadis arrested in the US after the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, has been cleared of all charges of terrorism and is expected to be set free by the end of this month.
According to a report from New York, US district court judge Shira Sheindlin on Wednesday ordered that the nine months that Azmath was in jail while the authorities investigated his suspected links with terrorists be treated as time served under the sentence for credit card fraud to which Azmath had pleaded guilty.
Sheindlin also ordered Azmath to pay back $76,000 in restitution of the money he stole. In Hyderabad, learning about Azmath being freed of charges, his wife Tasleem, who has been battling her deportation to Pakistan, said: “It’s been finally proved that my husband is innocent. I have waited for one year to hear this news. I do not know how I am going to spend the next few days till his arrival here.�
“This news has given me a new life,� she said. “I will offer special prayers to thank God for allowing my husband to come back,� she said.
“My husband’s return will also help me overcome my citizenship problem,� she said. The city police had earlier been ordered by the government to deport her to Pakistan as her visa had expired. Tasleem has appealed against the decision in the courts here.
Thirty-six-year-old Azmath was arrested along with his friend Ayub Ali Khan on a train after the September 11 terror attacks on suspicion of being linked to the World Trade Center attacks.
Both men were later charged with credit card fraud. In June, Azmath pleaded guilty to the charge but complained that federal authorities had wrongly accused him of terrorism-related crimes.
The report, quoting Azmath in court on Wednesday, said: “As a result of the accusations, I am now identified as having links to terrorism. They damage my life and I am unable to (be) normal again.�
The judge agreed Azmath’s time in custody had been unduly severe. “It was certainly an unusually harsh set of circumstances to be confined,� the AFP report quoted the judge as saying.
Azmath’s lawyer Anthony Ricco said he expected his client to be transferred to US immigration officials’ custody. He is likely to be deported to India by the end of September.