Pakistani-born U.S. Citizen Found Guilty of Terrorism Conspiracy Charges

June 10, 2009 - A federal judge has found a former Georgia Tech student guilty of conspiring to provide support to terrorists. Twenty four year old Syed Haris Ahmed, a naturalized American citizen, was found guilty by U.S. District Judge Bill Duffey after Ahmed waived his right to a jury trial last week. The verdict is not considered a surprise given that Ahmed admitted to his interrogators that he videotaped several government and commercial buildings and shared the footage with terrorism suspects.

Ahmed’s family is hoping for leniency as he has already spent just over three years in a federal prison and could face up to 15 years incarceration depending on his sentence.

His older sister, a resident of Karachi, Pakistan, expressed disappointment in the verdict saying “You can’t convict someone of thinking something.” Her father, local educator Syed Riaz Ahmed, was less conciliatory saying his son never actually harmed anyone but only expressed thoughts. He said he is “proud his son is becoming a good Muslim and is not guilty in the eyes of Allah”. The defendant, who is believed to have memorized the Quran during his confinement, read quotes in Arabic during his closing statement last week.

Co-conspirator and Atlanta resident Ehsanul Islam Sadequee will face trial in August. Ahmed and Sadequee are believed to have videotaped various U.S. locations to impress terrorists overseas to convince them of their potential value to the organization. Read more on the verdict here in the Atlanta Journal Constitution.