Posted on 04/17/2003 2:28:15 AM PDT by kattracks
London (CNSNews.com) - A plea deal made by an American backer of the Taliban may lead to the extradition to the U.S. of one of Britain's most outspoken radical Muslims.
James Ujaama pled guilty to conspiring to support the Taliban in federal court in Seattle on Monday. Prosecutors recommended that he be sentenced to two years in prison, although the charge against him carries a maximum sentence of 10 years.
Ujaama once worshipped at London's Finsbury Park Mosque and ran the website of preacher Abu Hamza al-Masri.
At the court hearing, Ujaama made a brief statement accepting responsibility for his actions. An additional felony charge against him was dropped.
In exchange for the lighter sentence, he has promised to give investigators information on al-Masri and other terror suspects.
"We expect his cooperation to lead to the arrest of additional terrorists and the disruption of future terrorist activity," U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft said in a statement.
Federal prosecutors have said that al-Masri provided Ujaama with a letter of introduction that enabled him to attend a terror training camp in Afghanistan. Ujaama admitted escorting a London student to the terror camp.
The student, Feroz Abassi, is now reportedly being held in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, after being captured in Afghanistan.
The plea agreement says only that "unindicted co-conspirator number 1" arranged for another person to travel with Ujaama to Afghanistan in late 2000.
During that trip, Ujaama delivered currency, software and other items to the Taliban.
Ujaama also made a trip to Pakistan in early September 2001 but was unable to cross the border into Afghanistan because of the local response to the Sept. 11 attacks, the Justice Department said.
Government to Remove Citizenship of Cleric
Al-Masri is already fighting against an attempt by the British government to strip him of his U.K. citizenship. The cleric is the first target of a new law that allows the government to remove citizenship from immigrants who "seriously prejudice" national security interests.
Al-Masri has ties to the Islamic Army of Aden, the group thought to be behind the bombing of the U.S.S. Cole in Yemen in October 2000.
Yemen has sought al-Masri's extradition over the bombing, but the country has no extradition treaty with Britain.
The cleric's lawyers have said they will fight both the removal of his citizenship and any extradition order. In a statement, they claimed that U.S. prosecutors exerted pressure on Ujaama "in order to coerce him to facilitate evidence of the nature that they wished to be provided with."
"It therefore comes as no surprise that James Ujaama, under such pressure, whilst on remand, away from his family who are in the U.K., is likely to provide evidence which is tainted," Muddassar Arani said in a statement.\b
"The fact that a man wishes to have his liberty in return for making available whatever the prosecutors wish to hear is an indication of how desperate Mr. James Ujaama is," Arani said.
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