Lahore: A Pakistani court Wednesday concluded
the trial of five American Muslim youths charged with
terrorism and the judge has said he will announce the verdict
tomorrow.
After hearing concluding arguments from the
prosecution and defence lawyers, Judge Mian Anwar Nazir of the
anti-terrorism court in Sargodha closed the proceedings and
reserved his verdict till tomorrow.
Defence lawyer Hassan Katchela told reporters that the
judge was expected to announce his judgement tomorrow.
The five Americans ? Ramy Zamzam, 22, Waqar Hussain
Khan, 22, Ahmed Abdullah Minni, 20, Iman Hasan Yemer, 17 and
Omar Farooq, 24 ? were arrested in Sargodha in December last
year on charges of having links with banned terror groups.
Authorities alleged they were planning to carry out
terror attacks in Pakistan and to travel to Afghanistan to
fight with militants against US-led forces in that country.
The trial of the five youths is being conducted in
Sargodha jail for security reasons.
The defence lawyers maintained in their concluding
arguments that the Americans were innocent and had no links to
terrorist activities.
The prosecution produced the confessional statement of
one of the accused, electronic evidence gleaned from computers
and emails between the accused and their contact Qari
Saifullah, believed to be an al-Qaeda operative.
The Americans were indicted in March and face life in
prison if convicted. Public prosecutor Nadeem Akram Cheema
told reporters outside the court that the government would
appeal any acquittal.
PTI
