A 29-year-old man from Maryland has been sentenced to 15 years in prison for providing support to Pakistan-based terrorist outfit Lashkar-e-Tayiba.
Ali Asad Chandia, a former teacher at a Muslim school in Maryland was also charged with assisting an LeT operative in procuring military-purpose equipment for use against India.
According to the sentence delivered on Friday, Chandia will also get three years of supervised release at the completion of his incarceration.
In spite of all his protestations of innocence, a jury ruled unanimously this June that Chandia was guilty of conspiracy to provide material support and resources to LeT, a designated foreign terrorist organisation.
Chandia was born in Lahore in 1976 and his family moved to the United States in 1994. He is said to have earned a bachelor's degree in information systems from the University of Maryland.
Evidence was presented at the trial that Chandia made a three-month trip to Pakistan in 2001-2002 and had met and allied with Mohammed Ajmal Khan, who is currently serving a nine-year sentence in the UK for his terrorist activities.
According to the prosecution, Chandia also helped Khan, who was also a military procurement official for LeT, in procuring military purpose equipment for use against India.
"Chandia gave safe harbor to him during Khan's visits to the United States in 2002 and 2003, and allowed Khan to use his home computer to pursue the acquisition of equipment such as unmanned aerial vehicles, night-vision equipment and wireless video cameras," Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, Chuck Rosenberg said in a statement.
"Khan also used the defendant's computer to confirm the purchase of $17,000 of Kevlar anti-ballistic material that Khan had purchased for LeT," Rosenberg said.
The US Attorney has further maintained that in a search at of Chandia's home in 2003, the FBI found audiotapes and other materials manifesting his commitment to violent jihad.
"On the front seat of Chandia's car, the FBI also found a CD-ROM containing videos glorifying the 9/11 terrorist attacks, Osama bin Laden and the 19 hijackers who carried out the attacks. They also found a CD-ROM containing still photographs of persons jumping to their deaths from the World Trade Center towers," the prosecuting Attorney said.
"Terrorist organisations like LeT rely on a network of individuals to carry out their deadly operations. Ali Asad Chandia was a member of that network," Rosenberg said.
The federal government has said that the field offices of the FBI in Washington DC and Baltimore investigated the case with the Anti-Terrorist Branch of the New Scotland Yard of Britain also providing substantial assistance in the investigation.
