Umer Hayat speaks

Umer Hayat is interviewed in today’s Sacramento Bee.  Mr. Hayat was unsuccessfully prosecuted on charges of lying to the FBI about his son’s “terrorist training” in Pakistan.  In the interview, Hayat indicates that the FBI set him up “in order to justify an expensive and unfruitful investigation into two Lodi Imams from Pakistan” who have since “voluntarily” departed the United States.

U. Hayat’s trial last Spring resulted in a hung jury.  He has been in federal custody since June 2005, but expected to be freed today after agreeing to plea to an unrelated charge of lying to customs officials about how much money he took to Pakistan on a 2003 trip.  The full Sac Bee story by Stephen Maganini is here.

-jmc