ALBANY NEW YORK MUSLIM CLERIC HATE
Albany
mosque
imam convicted of terrorism in sting deported
June
10, 2019
timesunion
Yassin
Aref,
an imam at an Albany mosque convicted of terrorism in a post-9/11 FBI
sting,
was deported Sunday night, his son and lawyer said.
Aref,
who is
Kurdish, will return to Iraq after 13 1/2 years in federal prison and
eight
months in immigration detention in Pennsylvania.
His
son Salah
Muhiddin said he received a call from his father around 3:45 p.m. Sunday
telling him that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) told Aref to
pack up
his belongings and prepare to leave. A little later, the messaging
system that
he uses stopped working and ICE's detainee locator stopped listing him
as a
detainee.
Muhiddin
was
expecting a call anytime Sunday evening to confirm Aref was at the
airport.
"If
everything goes smoothly, he should be back in his home country as a
free man
tomorrow," Muhiddin said.
Aref's
long-term
lawyer Kathy Manley said at a hearing in federal court arguing for
Aref's release last Friday, ICE said Aref would be deported soon.
"We
were
asking for him to be released because we didn't know when he was
actually going
to go. They said you don't need to do that, he'll be deported next
week,"
Manley said.
Aref,
who was
imam at Masjid As-Salam on Central Ave., was convicted in October 2006
by a
federal jury in Albany of conspiring to aid a terrorist group with
Central
Avenue pizza shop owner Mohammad Hossain, an immigrant from Bangladesh.
Their
2004 arrest was based on recorded information gathered during an FBI
counter-terrorism sting involving money laundering to purchase a
shoulder-fired
rocket launcher.
Prosecutors
portrayed
Aref as a religious fanatic. But Manley and others believe Aref's
arrest was a case of entrapment.
In a
twist in
the story last year, the FBI confidential informant in Aref's case,
Shahed
Hussain, was the owner of the limousine company involved in the
Schoharie crash
that killed 20. His son, Nauman Hussain, now faces 20 counts of
second-degree
manslaughter and 20 counts of criminally negligent homicide related to
the Oct.
6 crash. Shahed Hussain is believed to be in Pakistan.
On
Sunday,
Shamshad Ahmad, president of Masjid As-Salam, said about Aref: "We all
desired deportation. We wanted him to go back and start a new life. I
think his
life was closed as soon as he was arrested and charged."
Manley
and
Ahmad both said they feared for Aref's safety in Iraq if the authorities
learn
about his case. If he doesn't face trouble, Ahmad said: "I think he will
have a new life, a peaceful life and purposeful life."