Los Angeles Times: Terrorism-Related Charges Are Dropped  



http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-lodi1jun01,0,925492.story?coll=la-home-headlines

From the Los Angeles Times
Terrorism-Related Charges Are Dropped
By Rone Tempest and Eric Bailey
Times Staff Writer

8:41 PM PDT, May 31, 2006

Sacramento, Calif. — Federal prosecutors Wednesday agreed to drop 
terrorism-related charges against Lodi ice cream truck driver Umer Hayat in 
exchange for a guilty plea in a 2003 customs case.

Hayat, 48, who spent nearly a year in jail and under house arrest on the 
terrorism charges, was released for time served. Six weeks ago, a hopelessly 
split jury failed to reach a verdict in his case.

"This outcome, of course, was not the one most desired by the government," said 
U.S. Attorney McGregor Scott. The government still believes the original charges 
that Umer Hayat lied to FBI agents about his 23-year-old son, Hamid Hayat's 
2003-04 attendance at a terrorist training camp in Pakistan, he added.

But Scott said retrying a case that had resulted in a mistrial was too daunting. 
"It was my decision that the felony plea we announce here today was the best 
resolution of this matter for the government," he said.

In April, another jury found the younger Hayat guilty of all four counts against 
him. Hamid Hayat, scheduled for sentencing in July, faces up to 39 years in 
federal prison.

But the jury in the father's case deadlocked 7-5 for conviction and 6-6 on the 
two charges against him. As a result, the government Wednesday allowed Umer 
Hayat to plead guilty on charges that he lied to customs agents at Dulles 
International Airport in Virginia on April 19, 2003, about the amount of money 
he and his family were carrying on their way to Pakistan.

Federal law requires individuals to declare amounts exceeding $10,000. Customs 
officials found that the Hayat family had more than $28,000 they said they were 
planning to use for Hamid Hayat's upcoming wedding.

Defense attorney Johnny L. Griffin described the plea bargain as a victory for 
Umer Hayat, who he said had been unfairly branded as a terrorist.

"There is no way we were ever going to agree to any plea involving terrorism," 
Griffin said outside the Sacramento Federal Courthouse, "because it was not 
true."

Umber Hayat, smiling broadly at Griffin's side, declined to comment.

Although Scott said the plea agreement was a setback for the government, he 
added that the customs conviction of Umer Hayat, terrorism conviction of his son 
and deportation of Lodi's two Muslim religious leaders on visa violations 
amounted to success for the government.

"Our region is much safer today than it was one year ago," Scott said.

The four-year investigation of Lodi's large Muslim community began in late 2001 
after a Bend, Ore., convenience store clerk and former Lodi resident told FBI 
agents that he had seen known al-Qaida terrorists worshipping in the Lodi mosque 
in 1999-2000.

The FBI quickly determined that the sightings were false but hired the store 
clerk, Pakistani Naseem Khan, as an undercover paid informant and sent him into 
the Lodi community, where he secretly recorded hundreds of hours of 
conversations with fellow Muslims. No evidence surfaced of any al-Qaida 
connections. 





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