Lodi Men Accused of Lying to FBI

A federal grand jury indicted a Lodi ice cream truck driver and his son Thursday on charges they lied to FBI agents during an investigation into potential ties to Pakistan terrorist training camps.

Hamid Hayat, 22, is charged with two counts of lying to agents about attending a terrorism camp and receiving weapons instruction for a holy war against the United States.

The three-count indictment accuses Umer Hayat, 47, of a single charge of falsely denying any knowledge that his son took part in terrorism training in Pakistan.

Defense attorneys said the charges, which carry a maximum penalty of eight years in prison for each count, indicate that investigators can’t prove their case.

Johnny Griffin III, attorney for the elder Hayat, said a “true terrorism case” would have involved charges such as conspiracy to levy war or provide assistance to Al Queda.

“We don’t see any of that here,” Griffin said. “If the government can prove they attended a camp and therefore are terrorists, then why didn’t they charge them with that?”

Griffin and Wazhma Mojaddidi, the son’s attorney, said the men had nothing to do with terrorism. The attorneys said they might ask that the defendants be released from jail when they appear next Tuesday for arraignment.

U.S. Atty. McGregor W. Scott declined to discuss the indictment.

“We’re just going to let the charges stand on their own,” said Patty Pontello, his spokeswoman.

An FBI spokeswoman, Marcie Soligo, said the indictment “speaks for itself.”

After the June 5 arrests, federal officials alleged in an affidavit that the son had admitted attending Al Qaeda training camps in Pakistan that taught participants “how to kill Americans.” The affidavit said the father initially lied about knowing of his son’s participation but eventually admitted supporting his son in Pakistan with a $100 monthly allowance.

But federal officials backed away from some of the more serious terrorism allegations against the two men. In a second affidavit filed in court, U.S. officials deleted some of those allegations, among them that potential terrorism targets included hospitals and grocery stores.

Federal officials blamed the error on bureaucratic confusion.

The three-page indictment filed Thursday boils the allegations down to the bare bones. It accuses the younger Hayat of falsely telling authorities that he was not involved with a terrorist organization, that he never attended a terrorist camp and that he 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,” the indictment said.

The only new detail was a vague suggestion that his father might at some point have visited one of the camps.

Mojaddidi said she will look into the circumstances of the “interrogation” of Hamid Hayat. Though the young man was born in Stockton and raised largely in the United States, he might have been confused by language difficulties, Mojaddidi said. No interpreter was present during the polygraph examination and questioning by the FBI, she said.

“My client is not a terrorist,” she said. “He does not associate with any terrorist organization or support any terrorist activities, and he has most definitely never attended a terrorist camp.”

The Hayats, both U.S. citizens, are being held without bail in Sacramento County Jail. Three other men, including two religious leaders at a Lodi mosque, were apprehended last week and are being held on immigration violations in connection with the terrorism probe.

The indictments punctuated more than a week of turmoil for the small Pakistani community in Lodi, a Central Valley town of 62,000 best known for its growing wine industry and a like-named 1969 rock song by Creedence Clearwater Revival.

In a news conference in front of the U.S. Courthouse in Sacramento on Thursday, Muslim leaders were joined by civil libertarians and others to raise concerns about the ongoing probe.

Basim Elkarra of the Sacramento Valley chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations cited eight cases in which federal agents took part in “intimidating tactics” in coercing interviews with Muslims in Lodi. Elkarra and others met in Lodi on Saturday with federal officials to air complaints but said they felt compelled to also raise their concerns in public.

In one case, he said, a young man was threatened with deportation. Another was told he should talk to agents or risk being subjected to such exhaustive surveillance that even small infractions like jaywalking would get him in trouble, Elkarra said. A few were asked humiliating questions on the job and ended up quitting because of it.

“We’ve become disappointed and alarmed,” Elkarra said.

Soligo, the FBI spokeswoman, said agents are performing in a “professional manner.”

“The FBI sometimes uses investigative techniques that can make people feel uncomfortable,” she said. “That doesn’t mean there are civil rights violations.”