Washington:
A 24-year-old Pakistani national has been sentenced to 12 years in prison by a US court for providing material support to Lashkar-e-Taiba(LeT) by making a propaganda video for the terror group, helping it with recruitment and fundraising.
Jubair Ahmad, who pleaded guilty in December, was yesterday sentenced to 12 years of imprisonment followed by seven years of supervised release by the US District Court in Virginia.
"Jubair Ahmad was deeply committed to LeT's violent aims, which he promoted through online propaganda, recruiting others and fundraising for the terrorist organisation responsible for the deadly 2008 attack in Mumbai, India, which killed 160 people, including two Virginians," US Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia Neil H MacBride said after the verdict.
At sentencing, the government also presented evidence that Ahmad, while in the US, also conspired to recruit others to attend LeT training camps, conspired to raise funds for it and expressed his intention to return to Pakistan to complete the LeT commando training course and be launched on a martyrdom mission.
Ahmad admitted that in September 2010, while at his residence in Woodbridge, he communicated with Talha Saeed, the son of LeT founder Hafiz Saeed.
The US State Department had recently announced a bounty of USD 10 million for any information that leads to Hafiz Saeed's arrest and conviction in any court of law.
Talha requested Ahmad to prepare a video that would contain a prayer by Hafiz Saeed calling for the support of jihad and the mujahideen (militants).
In addition, Talha instructed Ahmad to present a variety of violent images on the video while Hafiz Saeed's prayer is heard in the background.
According to court documents, Talha directed Ahmad to begin the LeT video with a number of pictures of Hafiz Saeed, then show scenes where atrocities have been inflicted on Muslims, followed by the activities of the mujahideen conducting attacks in Kashmir.
At one point, Ahmad asked Talha if he wanted to include an image of the 26/11 Mumbai attack to show the power of LeT.
The attack by 10 LeT terrorists in November 2008 left 166 people dead, including six Americans.
Talha replied that he should not use anything referring to Mumbai. In September, 2010, Ahmad completed the video and uploaded it on YouTube.
Forensic examination by the FBI subsequently confirmed that Ahmad had constructed the LeT video on his computer.
Ahmad also sent a communication to another person overseas in which he explained that "Hafiz Saeed's son Talha Saeed" had requested him to prepare the video.
According to court records, Ahmad was born and raised in Pakistan, where he attended LeT training camps as a teen. In 2007, after receiving a visa from the US Department of State, Ahmad moved from Pakistan to the US with his family.