Lodi father, son indicted on charges related to terrorist camp

SACRAMENTO -- A Lodi father and son were indicted today by a federal grand jury on charges that they lied to authorities investigating links to Pakistani terrorist training camps connected to al-Qaida.

Hamid Hayat, 22, allegedly lied to the FBI earlier this month when he said he did not attend a terrorism camp in Pakistan last year and in 2003, prosecutors said. He was charged with two counts of lying to the FBI. Each charge carries a maximum penalty of eight years in prison.

His father, Umer Hayat, 47, was charged with a single count of lying to investigators when he denied that his son had attended such camps. The FBI said the elder Hayat later admitted to flying his son to Pakistan and paying for the camp, which was run by the friend of a relative.

The indictment said the younger Hayat falsely told authorities he was not involved with a terrorist organization, that he never attended a terrorist camp and that he had never received any weapons training at such a camp.

"In truth and in fact as he then well knew, he had attended one or more jihadist terrorist training camps, which included weapons training, in Pakistan," one indictment said.

In an affidavit, the FBI said Hamid Hayat attended a terror camp for about six months before returning to the U.S. intending to wage attacks. They said they found no immediate threat or terrorist activity.

The Hayats, both U.S. citizens, previously pleaded not guilty and are being held without bail in Sacramento County Jail. They are scheduled to appear in court Tuesday.

Relatives have said that Hamid Hayat returned to his father's homeland to get married, remained in the village the whole time and cared about little more than cricket matches. The Pakistan government has denied that terrorists run camps in the country.

Hamid Hayat's lawyer said she was not surprised by the indictments but said her client was innocent.

"My client is not a terrorist," lawyer Wazhma Mojaddidi said in a statement. "He does not associate with any terrorist organizations or support any terrorist activities, and he has most definitely never attended a terrorist training camp."

Umer Hayat's attorney, Johnny Griffin III, echoed her statements and said the allegations in the indictments would only create further panic and sensation.

"If the FBI had any credible evidence that Umer Hayat actually visited terrorist training camps in Pakistan, and that his son actually attended one or more jihadist trainign camps, such evidence would have been presented to the grand jury and terrorist-related charges would have been returned in the indictment," Griffin said in a written statement.

U.S. Attorney McGregor Scott, however, said prosecutors did not seek any counts other than the charges of lying federal agents.

"We want to ensure that we are deliberate, thorough and complete before we decide whether to file additional charges," he told the News-Sentinel today.

The FBI spent several years investigating possible links to terrorism in Lodi

After the Hayats were arrested and three Pakistani citizens, including two Muslim leaders, were detained on immigration complaints, members of the 2,000-member Pakistani community in Lodi said they were unfairly targeted.

Today, two groups held a news conference outside the federal courthouse and said they would file complaints with the FBI and U.S. Attorney's Office that Muslims were harassed by authorities.

"We have documented numerous reports of intimidating tactics used recently by some FBI agents," said Basim Elkarra, executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations. "We've become disappointed and alarmed at reports of abuse by local FBI."

Meanwhile, the American Civil Liberties Union and the San Francisco-based Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights filed a federal Freedom of Information Act request seeking the policies and procedures the FBI used during surveillance and interviews with Lodi Muslims.

Concerns expressed in the filing include:

• Discouraging people from contacting an attorney. Witnesses are not entitled to an attorney, but anyone who talks with the FBI may choose to retain an attorney.

• Detentions without first being advised of Miranda rights. In one case, an individual was allegedly frisked and searched, then questioned for several hours without being told of his right to an attorney.

• Not allowing access to attorneys. In one case, an attorney tried to contact a client but the FBI allegedly did not tell the individual an attorney was present until questioning was done.

• Pressuring people to answer questions, under threat of being bad-mouthed at work or arrested for things such as jaywalking.

• Conducting surveillance at a weeken "Know Your Rights" event in Stockton.

• Photographing and following two attorneys when they made a trip to Lodi.

• Giving polygraph tests in English to people who do not speak the language fluently.

"People have been told that if they didn't immediately comply (with an interview request), that they would be watched constantly, surveilled all the time, to the point where they would be arrested for the smallest crimes, like ... jaywalking," said Shirin Sinnar, an attorney with the committee.

News-Sentinel staff writer Layla Bohm contributed to this report.