Pakistan prosecutors confident 5 American alleged militants will receive guilty verdict
By APWednesday, June 23, 2010
Pakistan predicts conviction in US terror trial
ISLAMABAD — Prosecutors in the trial of five Americans accused of plotting terrorist attacks in Pakistan say they are confident the men will be found guilty when their trial concludes Thursday.
The five young Muslims from the Washington suburb of Alexandria, Virginia, were arrested in December after their families reported them missing. The case is one of several involving alleged “homegrown” American militants linked to Pakistan, but the only one being tried in a Pakistani court.
The men’s lawyers say they are innocent.
In notes passed to journalists by the men as they were driven to court, they have alleged they were subject to torture. Pakistani authorities deny that.
American diplomats have said nothing in public about the trial. Washington is trying to counter anti-American sentiment in Pakistan’s government, security forces and media, but is also pressing Islamabad to crack down hard on militancy.
Prosecutors say they have presented evidence such as e-mail records and witness statements backing up their contention the men were plotting terror attacks in Pakistan and conspired to wage war against nations allied with it, a reference to Afghanistan, where the men were alleged to have been traveling.
Prosecutor Nadeem Akram said Wednesday he was “sure they will be convicted.”
The trial is off limits to journalists and observers and is being heard by a single judge in a special anti-terrorism court. It has progressed rapidly by Pakistani standards.
The men have been identified as Ramy Zamzam of Egyptian descent, Waqar Khan and Umar Farooq of Pakistani descent, and Aman Hassan Yemer and Ahmed Minni of Ethiopian descent. One allegedly left behind a farewell video in the United States showing scenes of war and casualties and saying Muslims must be defended.
On Monday, Pakistani-American Faisal Shahzad pleaded guilty to trying to detonate a car bomb in New York’s Times Square on May 1. He told the court he received explosives training and funding from the Pakistani Taliban in its stronghold close to the Afghan border.
