| Man who made anthrax comment must leave U.S. By TIM MCGLONE, The Virginian-Pilot © January 24, 2002 Abdul Aghil Baaghil, 34, of Yemen, was in the United States on a temporary visa and working as a $70,000-a-year food and beverage manager at the Williamsburg Inn when the incident occurred on Oct. 26, during the height of the anthrax attacks. Baaghil was waiting at the Newport News-Williamsburg International Airport for a flight to Miami when he told a newsstand clerk that anthrax was on some magazines, according to a federal prosecutor. Airport police called the FBI and when agents questioned Baaghil, he denied making any statements about anthrax, said Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael R. Smythers. Baaghil was arrested that day and has been in jail. Baaghil pleaded guilty on Thursday to making a false statement to a federal agent. The charge carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison. ... Read more in The Virginian-Pilot or at PilotOnline.com ThinkIn--> NORFOLK -- A former manager at Colonial Williamsburg was ordered to leave the country after admitting in federal court that he lied to the FBI about anthrax comments he made at a local airport. Abdul Aghil Baaghil, 34, of Yemen, was in the United States on a temporary visa and working as a $70,000-a-year food and beverage manager at the Williamsburg Inn when the incident occurred on Oct. 26, during the height of the anthrax attacks.
Airport police called the FBI and when agents questioned Baaghil, he denied making any statements about anthrax, said Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael R. Smythers. Baaghil was arrested that day and has been in jail. Baaghil pleaded guilty on Thursday to making a false statement to a federal agent. The charge carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison. U.S. District Court Judge Henry C. Morgan Jr. sentenced Baaghil to time served, fined him $1,000 and ordered him not to return to the United States for three years. Baaghil admitted that he lied, but maintained that he never threatened anyone with anthrax, according to his lawyer and his new wife. The lawyer, Patrick H. O'Donnell, told Morgan that Baaghil simply was commenting to store clerks on the headlines splashed across magazines and newspapers on display. `` `I have to be careful. Anthrax could be on these very things,' '' O'Donnell said, paraphrasing what Baaghil said to clerks that day. But Smythers said Baaghil's comments were more direct. ``He said he might have put anthrax on it,'' Smythers said after the court hearing. ``It brought one girl to tears it frightened her so much.'' The USAir flight to Miami was delayed and all the luggage removed and inspected. Passengers were told their luggage would not arrive with them. Smythers said the airline had to purchase sets of clothing for one couple attending a wedding the next day. At the time, Baaghil's visa had expired and he was in the country illegally, Smythers said. He was appealing a deportation order from the Immigration and Naturalization Service. His lawyer said Baaghil entered the country on a visa after graduating from a university in Switzerland. He worked at a hotel in Mississippi before taking over the food and beverage service at the Williamsburg Inn. A spokeswoman for Colonial Williamsburg said Baaghil was employed there from Sept. 20, 2000, until Nov. 9. The judge gave Baaghil 20 days to arrange a flight out. His wife, Kellylynn Baaghil whom he married after his arrest, said she and her husband will be leaving together. They will not go to Yemen, she said, but she would not say in which country they plan to live. She said the incident was a misunderstanding, but declined further comment. Baaghil, when leaving the courtroom Thursday, turned to his wife and said, ``I love you.'' Reach Tim McGlone at tmcglone@pilotonline.com or 446-2343.
|
