American jihadi suspects 'set up' by police, say lawyers

[Park Life 71]

American jihadi suspects 'set up' by police, say lawyers

 

Lawyers for five Muslim men facing trial in Pakistan on terrorism charges claim that they can show that evidence was fabricated

 

 

 

Police fabricated evidence to incriminate five Americans facing trial in Pakistan on terror charges, lawyers representing the men will argue in court this week.

 

The men, all Muslims, were arrested in December in the central town of Sargodha, and have been charged with planning terrorist acts in Pakistan, Afghanistan and the US.

 

While the men admit wanting to travel to Afghanistan, they deny involvement in any jihadist activities and say they were planning to carry out "community work" in the country.

 

Defence lawyers will argue the men could not have made email contact with a Pakistani extremist linked to al-Qaida in the way the police claim.

 

According to the police's own summary of the investigation submitted to the court, investigators discovered the email account which was allegedly used to make contact several days after police had briefed journalists on the messages.

 

Similarly, the police report describes the discovery of maps of alleged target sites and other incriminating evidence more than two weeks after they had already told media about their existence.

 

The defence will also call into question police claims about the date of the men's arrest, which is several days after their widely reported detention on 9 December last year. Umer Farooq, 24, Waqar Hussain Khan, 22, Ramy Zamzam, 22, Ahmed Minni, 20, and Aman Hassan Yemer, 18, were charged under anti-terrorism laws.

 

Police say the group's intended target was Chashma Barrage, a complex located near nuclear power facilities in Punjab that includes a water reservoir and other structures.

 

The men, who pleaded not guilty, face life sentences if convicted on the most serious of the charges. They all grew up in the suburbs of Washington DC, where they were a tight-knit, religious group of friends. The Farooqs are originally from Sargodha and the men claim they had travelled to the Pakistani town to attend Umer's arranged marriage.

 

According to the police, the men were taken into custody on 9 December, but were allowed to go home each evening, and were only formally arrested five days later on 14 December. But there are no reported sightings of the men after 9 December.

 

Farooq's father Khalid, who was held for nearly three weeks before he was released, said that all of them were in continuous police custody after 8 December. "I was with the boys, in the same cell," he said. "There's no question of them being allowed out."

 

His son, Umer Farooq, 24, is on trial with Waqar Hussain Khan, 22, Ramy Zamzam, 22, Ahmed Minni, 20, and Aman Hassan Yemer, aged just 18. All of them grew up in the suburbs of Washington DC, where they were a tight-knit, religious, group of friends. The Farooqs are originally from Sargodha and the men claim they had travelled to the Pakistani town to attend Umer's arranged marriage to a local woman.

 

In a letter to Zamzam's parents seen by the Guardian, the men, who allege they were beaten by police and deprived of sleep and food in custody, face life in prison if convicted on the most serious of the charges.Following the arrest of the men, on 10 and 11 December police gave on-the-record briefings to local and international media about a Yahoo email account used to communicate with a Pakistani extremist called Saifullah.

 

They also said at the time that maps and jihadi literature were found with the men. But according to the police report lodged with the anti-terrorism court in Sargodha, where the men are being tried, it was only on 17 December that the suspects disclosed "their secret email address along with password" – allowing the investigators to find the communication with Saifullah.

Edited April 12, 2010 by Park Life

[Happy Face 29]

At least they're getting their day in court in Pakistan, home of the free.

 

Under Obabama's tyrannical regime they would have either been put to death, detained indefinitley without charge or sentenced in a closed military court.

Edited April 12, 2010 by Happy Face

[Park Life 71]

At least they're getting their day in court in Pakistan, home of the free.

 

Under Obabama's tyrannical regime they would have either been put to death, detained indefinitley without charge or sentenced in a closed military court.

 

How the world has changed my friend.

 

The Reich really packed up and moved to Amerikkka.