ICE brokers returned a British-born member of al-Qaida, who pleaded responsible in 2015 to attempting to begin a terrorist coaching camp in Oregon, to England.
Haroon Rashid Aswat, 48, of Batley in West Yorkshire, England, had been at a federal jail medical facility in Devens earlier than being transferred to Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody Wednesday to be eliminated to the United Kingdom. His extradition was dealt with by a Boston-based ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations workforce the identical day.
“Mr. Aswat, who sought to train future al-Qaeda members and provided material support to terrorist organizations around the globe, has been successfully turned over to authorities in the UK,” mentioned Todd M. Lyons, discipline director for ERO’s Boston workplace. “This operation reminds us all of the critical contributions to public safety that our dedicated and tireless team of professionals make on a daily basis.”
Aswat got here to the U.S. on a visa in 1999 however overstayed its phrases, in line with an ICE assertion. He joined fellow al-Qaida members Ouassama Kassir and Earnest James Ujaama to ascertain a coaching camp in a rural space of southern Oregon close to the unincorporated group of Bly in Klamath County.
This was below the path of fellow al-Qaida member Mustafa Kamel Mustafa, often known as Abu Hamza, who was the imam of Finsbury Park Mosque in London, England, in line with courtroom charging paperwork. The different males had been members of the mosque.
The function of the camp, in line with prosecutors, was to coach radicalized Muslims in numerous methods, together with army coaching, to struggle jihad in Afghanistan.
A 1999 faxed letter despatched from Ujaama — already in Oregon — to Abu Hamza within the U.Ok. described the Bly spot as trying “just like Afghanistan” and that the group was already “stock-piling weapons and ammunition.”
It was on receipt of this letter that Abu Hamza despatched the opposite two members, together with Aswat, to Oregon to coach up the members already recruited. They arrived in New York on Nov. 26, 1999, and traveled to Bly from there.
“Haroon Aswat fought his extradition to the United States for almost 10 years,” mentioned then-U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York Preet Bharara on the time of Aswat’s sentencing. “He then pled guilty to material support charges within just six months of arriving here, showing again our legal system’s capacity for swift justice.”
Aswat was arrested in 2005 again in England on the request of the U.S. authorities, however fought his extradition to face trial for terrorist fees within the U.S. for 10 years. He argued that his psychological well being — he has schizophrenia, in line with paperwork — ought to preclude his extradition.
He was lastly extradited in 2015 and pleaded responsible in federal courtroom within the Southern District of New York to 1 rely of conspiracy to supply materials assist to a overseas terrorist group and one rely of offering materials assist to a overseas terrorist group.
Abu Hamza and Kassir had already been convicted of their roles. Kassir was sentenced to life in jail in 2009 and Abu Hamza to the identical in 2015.
Source: www.bostonherald.com”