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Pakistan Convicts 5 Americans on Terror Offenses

Anti-terror court sentences Virginia men to 10 years

By Rob Quinn,  Newser Staff

Posted Jun 24, 2010 5:02 AM CDT | Updated Jun 24, 2010 6:06 AM CDT

(Newser) – Five young Americans accused of traveling to Pakistan to join the Taliban have been jailed for 10 years. A Pakistani anti-terrorism court found the five, aged between 19 and 25, guilty of conspiring to commit terrorist attacks and of funding terrorist organizations, the BBC reports. The men were reported missing by their families after they vanished from their Virginia homes last year

Two of them are Pakistani-Americans, two are of Ethiopian descent, and one is of Egyptian descent. One of the men left behind a farewell video showing scenes of war and saying Muslims must be defended, the AP reports. The men told the court they were there to perform charity work and that they had been tortured by the FBI and Pakistani security forces. Their lawyer plans to appeal to higher courts in Pakistan, which often overturn terrorism convictions.

Deputy prosecutor Rana Bakhtiar is mobbed by the press outside the district jail where five young Muslims from the Washington, DC area are being held in Sargodha, Pakistan.
Deputy prosecutor Rana Bakhtiar is mobbed by the press outside the district jail where five young Muslims from the Washington, DC area are being held in Sargodha, Pakistan.   (AP Photo/Dita Alangkara)
Pakistani police officers stand guard outside the district jail where five young Muslims from the Washington, DC area are being held, in Sargodha, Pakistan.
Pakistani police officers stand guard outside the district jail where five young Muslims from the Washington, DC area are being held, in Sargodha, Pakistan.   (AP Photo/Dita Alangkara)
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COMMENTS
Showing 3 of 8 comments
JohnEd
Jun 24, 2010 1:52 PM CDT
20 to 1 they don't live for five...bwahahaha
Spudsy
Jun 24, 2010 12:32 PM CDT
I hope that they are not allowed back in the US ten years from now.
SteveLee
Jun 24, 2010 10:52 AM CDT
The U.S. State Department continues to bring thousands more Middle Easterners to be "resettled" in the U.S. as "Political Asylum refugees." They will have problems adjusting to our way-of-life because of their culture and if even a few of them have the desire to inflict mass casualities on Americans they are a disaster waiting to happen. The U.S. does not need any more Zazis: http://patriotsforamerica.ning.com/profiles/blogs/palestinians-have-missle

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