Azmath,Mohammad

From 911Encyclopedia:

It took 3 months, before the title of "hijacker No.20" was taken over by Moussaoui,HabibZacarias, but originally belonged to Mohammed Azmath and Syed Gul Mohammad Shah, who both got arrested on an amtrak train on Sep12th. Almost one year later, former material witness, Mohammed Azmath, was relased free and found unguilty in any connection with the Sep11th attacks. Azmath's story was reported in Village Voice:

"...Seized last September 12 on an Amtrak train in Texas and then investigated for terrorist ties, Mohammed Azmath hardly measured up to the hype when he appeared at his sentencing hearing in Manhattan last week. ...The crime he had copped to in a plea agreement with federal prosecutors--one count of credit-card fraud--also seemed to fall short of the circumstances. Indeed, he could have received up to 14 months more in jail, but U.S. District Court Judge Shira Scheindlin let him off with time served. She said, "There's no question that the 12 months he's been in custody in this country have been under unusually harsh conditions." Azmath was in solitary confinement from September 14, 2001, when he arrived at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, until he was transferred to the jail's general population sometime this August. He was assigned a lawyer only after he was charged with the credit-card crime, in December." http://www.villagevoice.com/issues/0239/lee.php (September 25 - October 1, 2002) A few weeks later, on January 3rd, 2003, the NY Post reported on Syed Gul Mohammad Shahon, free and found unguilty, but already deported to Hyderabad, India: "In an interview at his home, after he was deported from the United States upon conviction of credit card fraud, Shah said he had been kept in solitary confinement for 12 months and been subjected to psychological torture at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn." http://www.nypost.com/news/regionalnews/52423.htm

(See BlueTriangle) (-> Detainees)