Posted on 05/17/2007 4:47:51 PM PDT by SwinneySwitch
Shiraz Syed Qazi, 26, one of four Muslim men charged in the so-called Houston Taliban case, was sentenced today to 10 months in prison.
The men were arrested in November and accused of training to join the Taliban's fight against U.S.-led forces overseas.
Qazi was convicted in January of unlawful possession of a firearm. He waived his right to a jury trial, opting for a decision from U.S. District Judge Lee Rosenthal. She found him guilty in 15 minutes.
A July 2005 camping trip in Willis, north of Conroe, was part of a government set-up using two informants to nab men who talked of fighting with the terrorist group. FBI agents used Qazi's acknowledgment that "he overheard statements over that weekend" to connect him to the plot.
Qazi, a Pakistani, appears in photographs with a semi-automatic weapon. At the time, he was attending Houston Community College on a student visa.
While prosecutors contend that federal law prohibits someone who is not a U.S. citizen from possessing a firearm, federal public defender Brent Newton argued that his client was not criminally liable because he didn't know he could not hold or shoot a gun.
Qazi's supporters say he simply went on a weekend shooting trip, which is common recreation in Texas.
Kobie Williams, 34, pleaded guilty to a conspiracy charge, admitting to paramilitary training and making financial contributions to the Taliban. The U.S. citizen known as Abdul Kabir or Abdul Kabeer was a Rice University engineering technician enrolled at the University of Houston-Downtown. He is to be sentenced in October.
Adnan Mirza, Qazi's cousin, is charged with conspiracy to defraud the United States by making donations to the terrorist organization and three illegal firearms possession charges. The 30-year-old former HCC student, who was born in Pakistan, is scheduled for trial in October.
Syed Maaz Shah, a 19-year-old who was attending University of Texas at Dallas on a student visa, is charged with two weapons violations. Also a Pakistani, his trial is set to begin Monday.
All four men remain in federal custody.
cindy.george@chron.com
10 months??? Bet that’ll deter him!
“Kobie Williams, 34, pleaded guilty to a conspiracy charge...” Another fine upstanding Muslim convert, I guess. Other people get religion and go off to work on soup lines, Muslims get religion and go off to kill.
He should be disbarred for even making that argument.
10 months??!!
10 months?
Bullsh*t!
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