Former Paramedic Pleads Guilty in Terrorism-Support Case
The cabdriver and former paramedic pleaded guilty Monday to conspiring to help a terrorist organization after admitting he attended training camps in Pakistan.
A cabdriver from Maryland pleaded guilty Monday to conspiring to help a terrorist organization after admitting he attended training camps in Pakistan.
Mahmud Faruq Brent Al Mutazzim, of Gwynn Oak, Md., had been scheduled to go to trial April 24 along with a New York musician and a Florida doctor. A New York bookstore owner pleaded guilty to charges in the case in November.
Under a plea deal with federal prosecutors, Brent, 32, agreed to serve 15 years in prison rather than a possible sentence of more than 20 years if he were convicted at trial.
He is not cooperating with the government and will not testify against his co-defendants, said his lawyer, Hassen Ibn Abdellah. Sentencing was set for July.
Brent, born in Akron, Ohio, was arrested in August 2005 and charged with conspiracy to provide material support to the Lashkar-e-Taiba organization, an Islamic militant group from Pakistan.
In court Monday, Brent said he attended the terrorist training camp even though he knew the sponsoring organization had been designated a foreign terrorist organization by the United States. He admitted to participating in terrorist training.
Prosecutors said Brent also received martial arts training from a co-defendant, Tarik Shah, a New York jazz musician and martial arts expert awaiting trial along with Dr. Rafiq Abdus Sabir. Shah and Sabir have pleaded not guilty. A fourth defendant, New York bookstore owner Abdulrahman Farhane, is to be sentenced next week.
The government said that after his arrest, Shah agreed to meet Brent and let the FBI monitor their meeting at a Maryland hotel.
During the meeting, Brent encouraged Shah to travel to the camps, prosecutors said.
Brent also indicated he had traveled to Pakistan and into the mountains for training with fighters, according to court papers.
Brent said that because of "treaties with (President) Bush," it became dangerous for "foreigners" such as him to stay in the camps, so he was moved around, prosecutors alleged in court documents.
Prosecutors said Brent, a Washington cabdriver and former paramedic, indicated that he would never go back on his decision to go to the training camps operated by Lashkar-e-Taiba in 2002 and that it was "one of the better decisions in my life."
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