US Attorney Reports Martial Arts Instructor Sentenced to 15 Years For Providing Support To Al Qaeda

LAWFUEL - The US Legal Newswire - MICHAEL J. GARCIA, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, announced today that TARIK SHAH, a martial arts instructor from the Bronx, was sentenced today in Manhattan federal court to 15 years in prison for conspiring to provide material support or resources to the al Qaeda terrorist organization. The sentence was imposed by United States District Judge LORETTA A. PRESKA. SHAH pleaded guilty on April 4, 2007, admitting that he agreed to aid al Qaeda by training their terrorists in martial arts and hand-to-hand combat with weapons. According to the documents filed in the case and statements made during SHAH’s guilty plea: From 2003 through part of May 2005, SHAH engaged in multiple meetings and conversations with a confidential source and, later, with an undercover Federal Bureau of Investigation agent (the "UC") who SHAH believed to be a recruiter for al Qaeda. During the meetings and conversations, the vast majority of which were recorded, SHAH discussed his desire and intent to aid al Qaeda, repeatedly indicating his desire to train Muslim "brothers" in the martial arts to help them wage jihad, and also regularly discussed his desire to find people who were willing to press the fight. SHAH also took steps to find locations where jihad training could be conducted and where he could make weapons. On May 20, 2005, SHAH met with the UC and, under the impression that the UC represented al Qaeda, pledged "bayat," or allegiance, to USAMA BIN LADEN and al Qaeda by taking an oath of secrecy and agreeing to abide by the directives of al Qaeda and its leaders, including USAMA BIN LADEN and AYMAN AL ZAWAHIRI. SHAH also agreed to provide his martial arts expertise to train al Qaeda fighters. In his conversation with the UC, SHAH stated that he had been "preparing this for a long time." SHAH has been detainedsince May 29, 2005. SHAH, 44, formerly lived in the Bronx, New York. Two other defendants in this case, MAHMUD FARUQ BRENT, a/k/a "Mahmud Al Mutazzim," and ABDULRAHMAN FARHANE, were sentenced by Judge PRESKA to 15 years and 13 years, respectively, following their guilty pleas to related charges. A third codefendant, RAFIQ SABIR, was convicted after a jury trial in May 2007 of conspiring to provide and providing material support to the al Qaeda terrorist organization. SABIR is expected to be sentence by Judge PRESKA on November 14, 2007. Mr. GARCIA praised the efforts of the New York Joint Terrorism Task Force, including the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the New York City Police Department, for their extraordinary efforts in the investigation and prosecution of this case. Assistant United States Attorneys JENNIFER G. RODGERS and KARL METZNER are in charge of the prosecution. 07-274 ###

US Attorney Reports Martial Arts Instructor Sentenced to 15 Years For Providing Support To Al Qaeda

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