Attorney alleges ties to terror

SAN FRANCISCO -- Though Shabbir Ahmed is only charged with immigration violations, a government attorney on Friday began laying out a case alleging the Lodi Muslim leader had ties to terrorist organizations and supported Osama bin Laden.

Ahmed, an imam at the Lodi Muslim Mosque, appeared in immigration court Friday to ask that bond be set. Through his attorney, he denied an allegation that he is in the country illegally, and his attorney showed a document in which he applied to renew his religious visa before it expired Nov. 20.

Shabbir Ahmed

Under questioning by Paul Nishiie, assistant chief counsel with Immigration and Citizenship Enforcement, Ahmed acknowledged in court that shortly after 9/11, he made speeches in Pakistan to support the Taliban in fighting against the United States.

Ahmed also said another imam, Mohammad Adil Khan, was a leader of an organization that is now on a U.S. list of terror organizations.

And, at one point, Osama bin Laden himself thanked members of the school where Ahmed was a scholar and later a teacher, Nishiie said.

Friday marked the first time the government revealed some of its case against Ahmed, who said he is 39 but is listed on jail records as 37, and Khan, 47, both of whom are detained only on administrative immigration violations. Khan's 19-year-old son, Mohammad Hassan Adil is also detained on a similar charge.

Ahmed, Khan and Hassan will all return to court Aug. 2. Ahmed's deportation trial is currently scheduled for Oct. 24.

Under questioning by his own attorney, Saad Ahmad, Ahmed said his views of America changed when he arrived here three years ago, and he pointed to his efforts to open the mosque doors to other religious leaders.

"Having come here, I have seen (Americans') true value and respect for human life. Even their animals are well taken care of," Ahmed testified through an Urdu interpreter.

He said he now regrets making anti-American speeches in Pakistan and that he only spoke because emotions were running high and he was worried for the safety of women and children.

"There is respect here. Even though I've gone to jail, at no time was I disrespected," he continued. "Every human being gets justice at his doorstep."

Ahmed has been held in the Sacramento County jail without bail since he was arrested three weeks ago. Immigration Judge Anthony S. Murry did not rule on the bond request because Friday's hearing was continued to Aug. 2.

After the hearing, the shackled man was taken out of the courtroom and escorted to a waiting van. With sirens blaring and lights flashing, more than half a dozen police cars escorted the van through the streets of San Francisco on its way back to Sacramento.

Until Friday, immigration and FBI officials had emphasized more than once that Ahmed, Khan and Hassan were only held on administrative charges relating to their visas.

At Friday's hearing, though, Nishiie asked questions that went much further than visa violations.

Among the questions, he asked about Jamira Farooqia, the Pakistani school where Ahmed was a scholar and teacher. Ahmed said that, yes, some students from the school went to fight in Afghanistan.

As a teacher at the school, Ahmed gave speeches in Pakistan, and Nishiie said in court that one speech led to riots. He accused the imam of making speeches five times, and briefly played a tape of an interview between Ahmed and FBI agents, in which he allegedly admitted making anti-American speeches.

Those speeches were made in November and December 2001, Nishiie said. In January 2002, Ahmed arrived in the U.S. to become a religious leader and teacher at the Lodi mosque.

Each year since then, he has made trips back to Pakistan to visit his wife and three daughters, then renewed his visa and returned to the U.S. In Lodi, Ahmed testified, he reached out to other religious leaders in the community and opened the mosque doors to them.

Outside court, two Lodi men waited to testify on his behalf. Should a judge grant Ahmed's bond request, community members would post bond, Taj Khan said after court.

"Under U.S. law, a person is innocent until proven guilty," said Khan, who is not related to Mohammad Adil Khan. "He has always preached peace and working with the Jews and Christians. He would not hurt anybody in the United States and he would not preach violence."

Attorneys Johnny L. Griffin, III, left, and Wazhma Mojaddidi, right decline to talk to reporters as about their clients, Umer Hayat and his son, Hamid, following a hearing at the federal courthouse in Sacramento on Friday. (AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli)

Meanwhile in Sacramento, a Lodi father and son appeared in Sacramento federal court, where prosecutors agreed to turn over evidence against them.

Umer and Hamid Hayat, 47 and 22 respectively, were also arrested earlier this month and accused of being involved with terrorism. Neither man is charged with any terror-related crimes; a grand jury indicted them on charges of lying to federal agents.

Federal prosecutors agreed to turn over some of their evidence, but U.S. Magistrate Judge Peter Nowinski rejected a request to make prosecutors reveal what led them to suspect Hamid Hayat and put him on the government's "no fly" list.

Nowinski said he wasn't going to let defense lawyer Johnny L. Griffin III "muck around in national security information."

"It's a serious false statement case," Nowinski said. "It's a case where someone lied about terrorist activities."

The FBI has said it was investigating possible Lodi links to terrorism for several years. The case sped up when Hamid Hayat boarded a plane and began heading back to the U.S. after spending two years in Pakistan.

The Associated Press contributed to this story.

Contact reporter Layla Bohm at layla@lodinews.com.