JURIST - Paper Chase: BREAKING NEWS ~ Hamid Hayat convicted on terror camp charges

[JURIST] AP is reporting that a federal jury in California has found Hamid Hayat [JURIST news archive] guilty of providing material support to terrorists [indictment, PDF] by attending an al Qaeda training camp in Pakistan. Hayat was also found guilty of lying to investigators and faces a maximum sentence of 31 years in prison. Earlier Tuesday, US District Judge Garland E. Burrell Jr. declared a mistrial [JURIST report] in the related trial of Hayat's father, Umer. Umer was charged with lying to the FBI about his son's activities, but the jury was unable to reach a unanimous verdict after deliberating for nearly two weeks. Lawyers will meet next week to decide whether that case should be retried.

Defense attorneys in the case had asked to review evidence gathered by the National Security Agency [official website] in the three-year investigation of the Hayats and other members of the Pakistani community in Lodi, California. The lawyers had hoped to review the NSA records to determine whether evidence had been gathered using controversial warrantless domestic wiretaps [JURIST news archive], but Burrell denied the request [JURIST report]. AP has more.

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