“I have not harmed anyone in my whole life,” he said in the statement to Judge Richard M. Berman, who sentenced him to 69 months.A Staten Island businessman was sentenced Thursday to nearly six years in prison for assisting terrorists by providing satellite television services to Hezbollah’s television station, Al Manar.
Muslim businessman, Javed Iqbal, 45, said in a statement read by his lawyer in Federal District Court in Manhattan that he was “deeply sorry” for what he called a mistake that hurt him “financially, emotionally and physically.”
Mr. Iqbal, who emigrated to the United States from Pakistan as a teenager, ran his business from a Brooklyn storefront and the garage of his home in Mariners Harbor, Staten Island, which had satellite dishes in the backyard. The United States Treasury Department has designated Al Manar — “the beacon” in Arabic — a global terrorist entity.
Mr. Iqbal’s lawyer, Joshua L. Dratel, had earlier argued that prosecution of his client for providing satellite TV services violated his First Amendment rights, but Judge Berman rejected that view, ruling that the prosecution was based not on the content of speech but on conduct — allegations that he provided material support to a foreign terrorist group.
Pro Se Cutor Eric Snyder said Iqbal recruited Al Manar, even traveling to ``the belly of the beast, Beirut,'' to meet with its general manager. ``He was, in a very real sense, Hezbollah's man in New York City,'' Snyder said.
Iqbal's attorney, Joshua Dratel, said his client held no religious or political loyalties to Hezbollah, but was out to make a buck. Dratel reminded Berman that Iqbal's HDTV Limited also provided customers with Christian programming, adult entertainment and gay and lesbian channels.
(Broadcast 3 men screwing each other? Fine. Broadcast Muslims reporting their own experience in the middle east? Go to jail. The New World Order Makes A Move)
1 comment:
Unreal.
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