08/08/03 - NEW YORK (CNN) -- Federal prosecutors have levied a terrorism conspiracy charge against a 23-year-old Pakistani man, alleging that he arranged for an al Qaeda operative to enter the United States illegally. Uzair Paracha made his first appearance in U.S. District Court on Friday but did not enter a plea. A bail hearing will be held Tuesday.
Paracha, a legal permanent resident of the United States, has been in jail for four months. He was detained in late March as a material witness in the investigation into al Qaeda and the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. The charge against him, one count of conspiracy to provide material support and resources to al Qaeda, carries a maximum sentence of 15 years in prison. Defense attorneys Anthony Ricco and Edward Wilford said Paracha will plead not guilty.
The criminal complaint alleges that Paracha agreed to help the al Qaeda operative obtain documents that would have allowed him to re-enter and possibly remain in the United States. Paracha is alleged to have helped the operative, who is not named, apply to U.S. immigration authorities for a Refugee Travel Document and to retrieve his passport, according to the complaint.
As part of the scheme, Paracha agreed to pose as the person in phone calls to immigration authorities, the complaint said. Paracha met in Pakistan this year with that al Qaeda operative, who remains overseas, according to the complaint. The operative allegedly asked Paracha to deposit money in his bank account, use his credit cards and close his post office box in Maryland to make it appear that the operative was in the United States.
Paracha arrived in the United States most recently in February, lived with a cousin in Brooklyn, and went into business selling Karachi residences owned by his father to Pakistanis moving back to their homeland, according to Ricco and Wilford. Prosecutors say the al Qaeda operative promised Paracha a $200,000 investment in his business, which also has an office in Karachi, contingent on his assistance, according to the complaint.
Paracha knew that the operative and another man were supporters of Osama bin Laden, according to the complaint. In New York, Paracha allegedly received two calls on his cell phone from the al Qaeda operative checking on the status of his travel documents, according to the complaint. Papers possessed by Paracha included handwritten instructions, such as "always call from a pay phone" and "put some money in my account," and statements such as "my status: asylee or refugee," according to the complaint. Ricco and Wilford asserted that Paracha has never been to a terrorist training camp in Afghanistan.
Paracha obtained a graduate degree in business from the Institute of Business Administration in Karachi last year. His mother, in an interview with CNN in Karachi, denied that her son is an al Qaeda associate.