Washington:
A US court is set to sentence Kashmiri separatist Ghulam Nabi Fai on charges of illegally working for the Pakistani spy agency ISI to influence American policy on Kashmir.
Sentencing of Mr Fai, 62, is scheduled before a court in Alexandria, Virginia, a suburb of Washington, DC.
He was arrested by the FBI on July 19 last year and had subsequently pleaded guilty before the court to the charges of being a paid agent of the ISI.
He had also pleaded guilty to conspiracy and tax violations in connection with a decades-long scheme to conceal the transfer of at least $3.5 million from ISI to fund his lobbying efforts in America related to Kashmir.
He faces a maximum potential sentence of five years in prison for the conspiracy count and a maximum three years in prison for the tax violation.
Meanwhile, the US Justice Department has recommended that Fai be sentenced for 48 months of imprisonment.
In its latest submission before the court of District Judge Liam O'Grady, the US Attorney, Neil H MacBride, said that Fai's Sentencing Guidelines which ranges 27-33 months fails to reflect the seriousness of the conduct of conviction, because virtually all of it is based solely on the loss to the Internal Revenue Service that resulted from a tax scam that was only ancillary to Fai's main offence.
"In consideration of all of Fai's criminal conduct, this Court should impose a sentence of 48 months," MacBride said in his latest submission in which he reiterated his charge of Fai being a liar and his continued suppression of the fact that he was a paid agent of the ISI."
In his March 28 submission, the US attorney opposed Mr Fai's argument that the seriousness of his offences is substantially mitigated by his "demonstrated remorse." The opposite is true, MacBride asserted.