Trial set for terror trade suspect
From CNN Assignment Editor Jonathan Wald
(CNN) -- A British man accused of trying to smuggle shoulder-held missiles into the United States and offering to obtain a radioactive "dirty bomb" for terrorists will stand trial November 3.
Hemant Lakhani, who appeared in U.S. District Court in Newark, N.J., has been in custody since his arrest last August.
Lakhani's attorney, Henry Klingeman, objected to the date, saying his client was entitled to a speedy trial.
"He has been in prison for eight and a half months already," Klingeman told CNN.
"By the time of the trial he will have been in custody for 16 months and yet at the same time he's presumed to be innocent."
Klingeman said he would submit an application for bail to Judge Katherine Hayden within a few weeks.
Lakhani, 68, of the Hendon area of London, was arrested in a sting operation involving an 18-month collaboration among officials in the United States, Russia and Britain.
The indictment against Lakhani claims the Indian-born Briton told an investigator that shoulder-fired surface-to-air missiles he attempted to import into the United States "could be used most effectively in terrorist attacks against commercial aircraft in the United States if 10 to 15 commercial aircraft were shot down simultaneously at different locations throughout the country."
According to federal prosecutors, he boasted of sales to terrorist groups and thought he had struck a deal to sell a missile to a Somali group seeking to launch a "jihad" against a U.S. commercial airline.
He tried to sell the group 200 missiles, and later insisted they buy 50 after they received the first one, priced at $85,000.
The man claiming to represent the Somali group was instead a cooperating witness for the United States, the missile Lakhani brought into the country was a dud, and the undercover Russian authorities who sold him the missile were collaborating with U.S. officials in the sting.
Prosecutors brought further charges against Lakhani in December, claiming he offered to procure a variety of anti-aircraft weapons, tanks and radar systems, as well as a radioactive explosive device known as a "dirty bomb."
In Monday's pretrial hearing, prosecution and defense attorneys discussed the credibility of Mohammed Habid Rehman, the government's cooperating witness who posed as the buyer of the missile.
Based on court and police documents, Klingeman contends Rehman extorted money through fraudulent business investments in Minnesota, Kansas, New Jersey and New York while acting as a government informant.
"If he has committed fraud," Klingeman said, "that would cast doubt on the things he was saying to the government."
"We will be looking into these allegations as a matter of course," said Mike Drewniak, spokesman for the U.S. attorney in Newark.
Klingeman maintains his client "was induced to participate in the scheme after Rehman lured him in with the prospect of making a lot of money."
Guilty pleas
Lakhani, whom Klingeman describes as a Hindu entrepreneur, "has absolutely no ties to terrorist groups and has never been politically or religiously active in the 40 years he's lived in London with his family," Klingeman said.
"If the government had not approached him, he would be sitting in London selling women's clothing."
Lakhani could be sentenced to 15 years in prison and fined $250,000 if found guilty of "providing material support to terrorists."
Other charges carry possible prison terms of between two and 20 years.
Two other men indicted in the same case for their roles as financial middlemen pleaded guilty in the past month to transferring money illegally.
Yehuda Abraham and Moinudden Ahmed Hameed contended they did not know what the transferred money would be used for.
Abraham and Hameed each face maximum sentences of five years and fines of $250,000.
