Free Republic

A businessman from Hendon was sentenced to 47 years in prison on Monday after being found guilty of attempting to smuggle missiles into America. Clothing merchant Hemant Lakhani, 70, of Wykeham Road, was convicted in April this year of trying to sell shoulder-launched missiles to a Somali terrorist group to shoot down commercial airliners. The case centred on the evidence of the US government's key witness, Mohammed Habib Rehman, an informant posing as a representative of the Somali-based Ogaden National Liberation Front interested in buying missiles. The court in Newark, New Jersey, heard tape-recorded telephone conversations and viewed video surveillance...

NEWARK, N.J. (Reuters) - A British businessman was found guilty on Wednesday of trying to aid terrorists for selling a shoulder-launched missile to an informant posing as a militant seeking to attack the United States. Hemant Lakhani, 69, a British citizen born in India, was found guilty of five criminal charges by a U.S. District Court jury in Newark, New Jersey, that began deliberating on Tuesday. Lakhani was arrested in August 2003 after a two-year international sting operation and accused of trying to provide material support to terrorists, unlawful arms sales, smuggling and two counts of money laundering. His arrest...

THE TRIAL of Hemant Lakhani, the Briton accused of trying to sell missiles to terrorists in the US, is underway, with the jury set to begin its final deliberations in New Jersey. Lakhani, 69, a London resident, was arrested after presenting a sample shoulder-fired missile to an FBI agent posing as a Somali terrorist. He has denied the charges. Lakhani`s lawyer, Henry Klingeman, has described his client as a "joke" who "couldn`t finish a deal if his life depended on it". According to him, Lakhani is a victim of entrapment, adding that his client could not have sold illegal arms...