This Article is From Jul 04, 2018

US Seeks To Revoke Citizenship Of Indian-Origin Convicted For Terrorism

In 2009, Khaleel Ahmed pleaded guilty to charges of providing material support to terrorists in a plot to murder or maim US military forces in Iraq or Afghanistan.

US Seeks To Revoke Citizenship Of Indian-Origin Convicted For Terrorism

Khaleel Ahmed was sentenced to eight years and four months of imprisonment.

Washington:

The United States has filed a lawsuit in a federal court in the Northern District of Illinois seeking to revoke the American citizenship of a 37-year-old Indian-origin man who was convicted of terrorism.

In 2009, Khaleel Ahmed pleaded guilty to charges of providing material support to terrorists in a plot to murder or maim US military forces in Iraq or Afghanistan.

He was sentenced to eight years and four months of imprisonment followed by three years of supervised release in 2010.

"Civil denaturalisation is one important tool in our anti-terrorism efforts. We will continue to zealously seek out and prosecute individuals like Mr Ahmed," acting Associate Attorney General Jesse Panuccio said after filing a lawsuit to denaturalise Khaleel Ahmed in a court in the Northern District of Illinois on Wednesday.

Mr Ahmed obtained US citizenship in 2004. The civil denaturalisation complaint alleges that Mr Ahmed concealed and misrepresented his criminal conduct throughout his naturalisation proceedings, and his application would have been denied if the immigration authorities had known about his provision of material support to terrorists.

"The United States will never be a safe haven for those seeking to support terrorists," Special Agent in-charge James Gibbons said.

"When individuals lie to obtain immigration benefits, the system is severely undermined and the security of our nation is put at risk," he said.

Khaleel Ahmed's conviction and the conduct on which it was based requires revocation of his naturalisation on several independent grounds, he said.

Between 2004 and 2007, Khaleel Ahmed and his cousin Zubair Ahmed made preparations to travel abroad. They travelled to Egypt with the intent of engaging in acts that would result in the murder or maiming of US military forces, he conceded in the guilty plea.

After returning from Cairo, the cousins discussed, sought, and received instruction on the use of fire-arms, including sniper rifles, and in counter-surveillance techniques.

They also collected and distributed videos of attacks on US military forces overseas, manuals on military tactics and military manuals on weaponry.

In 2009, the US District Court for the Northern District of Ohio accepted the cousins' guilty pleas, and in 2010, sentenced Khaleel Ahmed to eight years.

Born in India in 1980, Mr Ahmed was a beneficiary of chain immigration. He arrived in US on August 16, 1998, as a lawful permanent resident (as a child of a brother or sister of a United States citizen). He became a US citizen on March 31, 2004.

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