SAN FRANCISCO, Aug 26: Headline-grabbing terror trial of Umer Hayat, a Pakistani American, ended on Friday after a US federal judge in Sacramento sentenced him to time he served in detention since his arrest in June 2005. The accused walked out of the court a free man.
Mr Hayat, 48, was arrested on charges of lying to the FBI about his oldest son Hamid’s alleged terrorist training in Pakistan and his own visits to the camps.
His first trial ended in April this year in a mistrial after the jury deadlocked and he agreed to plead guilty to an unrelated charge of lying to customs officials about how much money he carried on a 2003 trip to Pakistan.
In his first press interview about the case, Mr Hayat denied he or his son was ever involved in terrorism, saying their confessions, taped by the FBI, resulted from exhaustion and leading questions.
He accused the FBI of setting him up and “screwing” him to justify an expensive and unfruitful investigation into two Lodi imams from Pakistan who since have been voluntarily deported. According to court documents, the FBI paid $250,000 to an informer to build up the case over a period of three years.
Mr Hayat, who emigrated from Pakistan 30 years ago and became a US citizen in 1993, insisted he and his son were never terrorists, never went to terrorist camps, and told the FBI what it wanted to hear so they could go home after hours of relentless questioning.
He pointed out that he and his son drove to the FBI office voluntarily in June 2005 and submitted to taped interviews because they were good US citizens.
“If we were terrorists, we would not give them an interview,” Mr Hayat said.
