Prosecutors: Pakistani man has terror ties

Oakland Tribune, Apr 29, 2006 by Josh Richman, STAFF WRITER

A Pakistani man indicted on a charge that he'd lied to immigration officials has ties to "at least one leader of a recognized international terrorist organization," federal prosecutors in Oakland now say.

Shehrezad Faruk Czar, 38, "admitted that he knows Altaf Hussain and has been in e-mail contact with him," according to a memo filed Thursday by Assistant U.S. Attorney Lewis Davis.

Czar also "(d)escribed Altaf Hussain as a very powerful figure in Pakistan" with whom he was in contact in order to obtain a banking license, Davis' filing said.

But told that Hussain is the founder and head of the Muttahida Quami Movement, or MQM, allegedly responsible for violent crimes including murder, kidnapping and at least one bombing, Czar "flatly denied" his associate is a terrorist, the document says.

Czar, who appeared Thursday before U.S. Magistrate Judge Wayne Brazil of Oakland, remains behind bars pending a detention hearing Monday.

His lawyer, Assistant Federal Public Defender Jerome Matthews, just took the case Thursday and said Friday he needs more time to review the file before making any comment.

A federal grand jury indictment handed up April 20 charges Czar with a single count of false swearing in an immigration matter, a felony with maximum penalties of 10 years in federal prison and a $250,000 fine. He has pleaded not guilty.

The indictment says Czar, in applying for an immigrant visa, said he'd been awarded an honorary doctoral degree by the Illinois-based University of Berkley online correspondence school; had been nominated for the Nobel Prize in Economics by the school "in recognition of his outstanding research in Applied Economics, Quantum Physics and Mathematical Sciences;" and had been given the titles of "Ambassador at Large" and "Professor Emeritus" by the school.

None of this is true, a school official told prosecutors.

Hussain, who has lived in London since 1992, at one time "faced more than 100 charges in Pakistan including murder and kidnapping," Davis' memo says. "He was sentenced in absentia to 27 years in prison for allegedly kidnapping and torturing an army major."

Davis' memo says Hussain started the MQM in 1978 as an Urdu- speaking ethnic student group at the University of Karachi, and that it's responsible for violent crimes in Pakistan against Pakistanis and foreigners alike.

Although the group denied responsibility and said it was being framed by the government, two MQM members were convicted in 1999 of the 1997 murders of four American oil workers and their Pakistani driver.

And the Rand Corporation "has identified at least one terrorist bombing incident in 2001 in Karachi for which the MQM claimed responsibility," the memo says.

"While the United States is not prepared at this time to suggest that the defendant is involved in terrorism, his contacts with Altaf Hussain and his denial of Hussain's involvement in terrorist activities are suspicious," Davis wrote. "(I)t is not credible to believe that a man in exile from his country and against whom criminal charges have been lodged would be in a position to grant the defendant a banking license."

Contact Josh Richman at jrichman@angnewspapers.com.