2 Detainees Not Terrorists, Lawyer Says

Two Pakistani men arrested at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport earlier this month on charges of illegally entering the U.S. have no ties to terrorist groups, their lawyer said Thursday.

The men had allegedly paid immigrant smugglers to help them cross the border from Canada and were headed for New York, one to get a job driving a taxi and the other to link up with friends and avoid deportation from Canada. The two men say they did not know each other.

“These guys are totally terrified. They are both simple village guys,” their immigration lawyer, Ijaz Khan, said after learning his clients’ initial immigration hearing had been canceled in lieu of a hearing in criminal court.

The U.S. attorney’s office in Seattle said Thursday that it had charged the two, Arif Mahmood and Javed Khan, with immigration violations. Magistrate Judge Monica J. Benton set a trial date of Oct. 14 for Khan and Oct. 15 for Mahmood. They will be detained until their trials.

The two men appeared in court briefly Thursday to face the charges, which carry a maximum penalty of six months’ imprisonment and a fine of up to $5,000 if they are convicted.

Mahmood, 29, lived in Calgary, Alberta, and Javed Khan, 36, lived in Vancouver, British Columbia. Both were arrested at the airport Aug. 9 after Mahmood’s name appeared on an FBI “no-fly” list of people posing a threat.

But Mahmood’s name is a common one and Ijaz Khan said his client had no plans for violence. He said the men had gone to the airport after illegally crossing the border so they could fly to New York.

Javed Khan paid $1,800 to arrange for a car to be left on the U.S. side of a border crossing near Blaine, Wash. -- where millennium bomb plotter Ahmed Ressam was arrested in December 1999 -- and ambled across the national boundary. Mahmood paid $2,000 to be picked up in a car after crossing the border through a field, Ijaz Khan said.

The lawyer said Mahmood was hoping to earn enough to pay off debts and bring his wife and child from Pakistan.

Javed Khan fled Pakistan after being tortured for supporting ousted former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto. He was granted asylum in Canada, but has since lost that protection.