Pakistan convicts 5 American Muslims on terrorism charges

Five young American Muslims who Pakistani police say left their homes and families in suburban Virginia last year to link up with extremist groups in Pakistan were convicted Thursday on charges of plotting terrorist attacks and sentenced to 10 years in prison.

The five men had said that they wanted only to carry out humanitarian work in Afghanistan, but Pakistani authorities alleged that the group had clear targets in mind in Pakistan, including an air force base in the city of Mianwali and a nuclear power plant in Chashma.

Their case was just one of a number involving young American Muslims who have sought out militant groups in Pakistan.

On Monday, Faisal Shahzad, 30, pleaded guilty in New York City to attempting to detonate a car bomb last month in Times Square, acknowledging that he had received training from Taliban militants in Pakistan.

Another U.S. citizen of Pakistani descent, David Coleman Headley of Chicago, pleaded guilty in March to helping Pakistani militants scout out targets before the 2008 attacks in the Indian city of Mumbai that killed 166 people.

The five men sentenced Thursday, all U.S. citizens, lived within blocks of one other in Alexandria, Va. U.S. anti-terrorism officials have said they believe the leader of the group was Ramy Zamzam, 22, an Egyptian-born dental student at Howard University. The other men accused were Umar Farooq, 25, a Pakistani-born naturalized U.S. citizen; Waqar Khan, 22, a Pakistani American; Amin Yemer, 19, of Ethiopian descent; and Ahmad Minni, 20, the son of Ethiopian immigrants.

Experts who have followed the case expressed doubt that the five young men posed a serious threat because they had set out without a clear plan. When they arrived in Pakistan, they sought to join up with two militant groups, Jaish-e-Mohammed and Lashkar-e-Taiba, but were turned away.

However, Pakistani prosecutors said they had strong evidence that the men were working with a wanted militant commander and were intent on carrying out a terrorist attack in Pakistan. They cited extensive e-mail exchanges between the five men and a highly sought Pakistani militant known as Saifullah, as well as maps they had in their possession of the power plant in Chashma and the air force base.

Prosecutor Nadeem Cheema said the case against the men was also bolstered by evidence that they had given money to Pakistani militant groups. Cheema acknowledged that the amounts were small — $11 to $23 from each defendant — but said that under Pakistani law any amount given to a known militant group is a crime.

The ruling was handed down by Judge Mian Anwar Nazir in an anti-terrorism court here in Sargodha, the city where the men were arrested late last year. Nazir did not explain his ruling, said Rana Bakhtiar, deputy prosecutor general for Punjab province. Bakhtiar said that he was happy with the verdict but that prosecutors would appeal to the provincial high court to seek a harsher sentence.

Defense lawyer Hasan Dastagir Katchela said he was stunned by the verdict and would also file an appeal. Katchela alleged that all of the evidence against the five Americans was fabricated, and that they were tortured by investigators into making incriminating statements.

“I was never expecting that they’d be convicted,” Katchela said. “The evidence speaks so loudly in favor of an acquittal that no one could ever think of their conviction.”

Asked about the verdict, American Embassy spokesman Richard Snelsire said the U.S. government “respects the judgment of the Pakistani judicial system.” He declined to comment further.

alex.rodriguez@latimes.com