Prosecutors Add Charges In Alleged Terror Plot

April 27, 2007

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Federal prosecutors have added charges against a Houston-raised college student charged in connection with an alleged terrorist plot to aid the Taliban.

Syed Maaz Shah, 19, was indicted last year on two counts of being an alien in possession of a firearm.

The new charges make the same claim, but also allege that the Pakistani student was in the United States illegally.

All four counts charge Shah with unlawfully possessing a semiautomatic weapon.

“They just added (the counts) to cover a question about his status in the country,” said Shah’s attorney, Frank Jackson, of Dallas.

Either way, a student visa holder or someone who has an expired visa and is here illegally cannot have a gun, prosecutors allege.

Nancy Herrera, spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office, declined to elaborate on the new charges.

Jackson said he’ll argue that his client was entrapped by a confidential informant and undercover FBI agent who gained Shah’s trust at a Muslim camp site in Willis. “There is no terrorist implication to what he has done except some words he might have used.” Jackson said. “They’re probably going to bring in some issues about conversations that he had with undercover agents reflecting some opinions about how the world is.”

Background Story - Video From Dec. 2006

Story Source - Houston Chronicle

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