ISLAMABAD // A Pakistani court sentenced five young Americans to 10 years in prison on terrorism charges yesterday, according to lawyers in the case.
The five, all in their 20s and from Virginia, were arrested in December in Sargodha, a city in Punjab province, and have been held in jail there since.
Police officials maintained that the men had travelled to Pakistan to plot terrorist attacks and had contact with militant organisations.
The judge, Mian Anwar Nazir, of the anti-terrorism court announced the verdict amid tight security inside the central prison in Sargodha.
Apart from the prison term, a fine of US$823 (Dh3,000) was also imposed on each individual for conspiracy against the state, according to Rana Bakhtiar Ali, the deputy prosecutor general of Punjab. He said the prosecution would appeal for an increase in the sentence.
Hasan Dastgir Katchela, the defence lawyer, while expressing disappointment over the verdict, said his clients would appeal against their conviction.
A representative of the US Embassy was present to hear the verdict in Sargodha. A spokesperson for the embassy in Islamabad was later quoted as saying that the judgment of the Pakistani court would be respected.
The case had attracted a lot of interest as it once again highlighted an increasing number of western individuals traveling to Pakistan to plot terrorist attacks or undertake militant training in the lawless tribal regions that straddle the border with Afghanistan.
Earlier this week, Faisal Shahzad, an American of Pakistani origin, pleaded guilty in a US court to trying to detonate a bomb in New York's Times Square on May 1. He travelled to the tribal region of North Waziristan last year to receive military training, according to Pakistani and US officials. Shehzad had also formed a network of likeminded individuals unhappy with US policies in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
The five Americans, Umar Farooq and Waqar Khan, who are of Pakistani origin; Ramy Zamzam, a dental student of Egyptian descent at Howard University; Aman Hassan Yemer, originally from Ethiopia; and Ahmad Abdullah Minni, a native of Eritrea, were radicalised in the United States, according to investigators. They started visiting websites of Jihadi organisations and developed militant aspirations after making contacts with a Pakistani militant, Saifullah, over the internet.
In December 2009, they were reported missing by their families in the United States. They soon surfaced in Pakistan as police raided a house in Sargodha, a city known for its Pakistan Air Force base.
The young men claimed they were visiting Pakistan to attend Farooq's wedding at his ancestoral home in Sargodha, and planned to proceed to Afghanistan to undertake humanitarian work.
But during the course of the court proceedings, the prosecution and investigators maintained that the presence of the men in Pakistan was for a far more sinister reason.
The young men initially travelled to the southern city Hyderabad where they unsuccessfully tried to enroll at a madrassa run by a banned militant group, Jaish-e-Muhammad. From there, they went to the eastern city of Lahore and tried to make contact with Jamat-ud Dawa, a charity front for the banned militant group Lashkar-i-Taiba, which Indian and US officials accuse of carrying out the 2008 terrorist attacks in Mumbai, India. But they were shunned there as well.
They were arrested in Sargodha after police received an intelligence tip-off about the presence of foreigners acting suspiciously, according to an investigator of the case. Apparently, the foreign bearing of the men and lack of credible contacts drew suspicions among local radical groups.
Police had presented a charge sheet of 250 pages. The prosecution also produced before the court printouts of e-mails, records of mobile phone conversations and maps that had markings of an air force base and a nuclear power plant site as potential targets.
During the trial, which was not open to media, a total of 19 witnesses recorded their statements according to lawyers in the case. A total of five cases were registered against the Americans. They were acquitted in three while convicted in two.
The accused men remained silent as the verdict was read out to them, according to lawyers. They had earlier claimed they had been tortured while in prison, a charge denied by Pakistani authorities.
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Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
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COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Kumulus Water
Started: 2021
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Europe’s rearming plan
- Suspend strict budget rules to allow member countries to step up defence spending
- Create new "instrument" providing €150 billion of loans to member countries for defence investment
- Use the existing EU budget to direct more funds towards defence-related investment
- Engage the bloc's European Investment Bank to drop limits on lending to defence firms
- Create a savings and investments union to help companies access capital
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Banned items
Dubai Police has also issued a list of banned items at the ground on Sunday. These include:
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Political flags or banners
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Bikes, skateboards or scooters
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UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Mia Man’s tips for fermentation
- Start with a simple recipe such as yogurt or sauerkraut
- Keep your hands and kitchen tools clean. Sanitize knives, cutting boards, tongs and storage jars with boiling water before you start.
- Mold is bad: the colour pink is a sign of mold. If yogurt turns pink as it ferments, you need to discard it and start again. For kraut, if you remove the top leaves and see any sign of mold, you should discard the batch.
- Always use clean, closed, airtight lids and containers such as mason jars when fermenting yogurt and kraut. Keep the lid closed to prevent insects and contaminants from getting in.
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7.05pm: Handicap (TB) Dh102,500 (D) 1,200m
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Business Insights
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