ATLANTA, June 10 (UPI) -- A former Georgia Tech student has been found guilty of conspiring to provide material support to terrorism in the United States and overseas.
U.S. District Judge Bill Duffey in Atlanta issued his decision in the case against Syed Haris Ahmed, who faces a prison sentence of up to 15 years, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported Wednesday.
Duffey presided over Ahmed's non-jury trial last week. Ahmed waived his right to a jury trial so he could give his closing argument, in which he recited from the Koran and told the judge using U.S. laws to defend himself would put him at odds against God, the newspaper said.
"This case has never been about an imminent threat to the United States, because in the (post-Sept. 11, 2001) world we will not wait to disrupt terrorism-related activity until a bomb is built and ready to explode," U.S. Attorney David E. Nahmias said. "This investigation is connected to arrests and convictions of multiple terrorist supporters in Atlanta and around the world -- all before any innocent people were killed."
Federal prosecutors said Ahmed and his alleged co-conspirator, Ehsanul Islam Sadequee, traveled to Washington in 2005 and videotaped landmarks that ended up on computers of two men later convicted of terrorism charges in Great Britain. Prosecutors also said Ahmed recruited other men to join him at a terrorist training facility in Pakistan.
Ahmed lawyer Jack Martin countered his client never committed an act of terror, but was an impressionable college student who fell under the spell of propaganda and extremist Web sites.
