New York: Federal investigators have arrested a man of Pakistani origin for providing to customers satellite broadcast of a television station controlled by Hezbollah.
Forty-two-year-old Javed Iqbal was being held on a $ 2,50,000 bail
after he was arraigned in a Manhattan court Thursday.
Iqbal had operated a small company for several years and earlier this week, federal agents raided his storefront and house.
He was operating the satellite television business from the garage of the house.
The US has designated the television station Al Manar, which mans beacon in Arabic, as a terrorist entity and Hezbollah is designated as a foreign terrorist organisation.
Assistant US attorney Stephen A Miller told the court that the charge lurking in the background is material support for terrorism.
The bail was set high after Miller termed Iqbal as "flight risk" as he has family in England and Pakistan.
The New York Times quoted Iqbal's lawyer, Mustapha Ndanusa, as saying that his client, who came to the US from Pakistan, was a compassionate man, and at one point offered shelter in his house to a homeless woman.
"He has been very generous in the community, He's a fun-loving guy," Ndanusa said.
The paper also quoted another spokesman for Iqbal, Farhan Memon calling the government's charges ridiculous.
"Its like the Government of Iran saying we're going to ban The New York Times because we think of it as a terrorist outfit. Or China trying to ban CNN," Memon said before the hearing."
Comments
0 comment