Bangladeshi to contest son’s conviction in US for terrorism

DHAKA - The father of a Bangladeshi-origin US citizen has said he would appeal against an American court verdict convicting his son and a colleague for filming landmarks in Washington and sending the clips to an Islamist militant outfit.

Sardar M. Shareef told New Age newspaper Thursday that his lawyers “will appeal to the US High Court…against the verdict”.

Ehsanul Islam Sadequee, a resident of Virginia, was sentenced to 17 years of imprisonment Monday.

He and Syed Haris Ahmed - who was convicted in June on a similar charge - drove around Washington and filmed 62 clips of various sites, including the US Capitol, a fuel depot and a Masonic temple.

American prosecutors told the court that Sadequee then sent at least two of the video clips, with titles such as “Jimmy’s 13th birthday party” and “Volleyball contest”, to an overseas contact.

Sadequee had sent an email seeking to join the Taliban in its fight against the US and coalition forces in Afghanistan in 2001 while he was living in Bangladesh, prosecutors said.

In 2004 and 2005, Sadequee - then living in Georgia - “entered an illegal agreement…with others to provide material support to terrorists engaged in violent jihad”, the authorities said in a statement after his conviction.

Sadequee married his cousin Happy Shanaz March 3, 2006.

Bangladeshi plainclothes security personnel picked him from Kalachandpur Bridge April 17, 2006 when he, along with and his newly-wedded wife, were going home after shopping.

Happy Shahnaz then filed a writ petition in the high court here challenging the legality of arresting Sadequee and secretly handing him over to the US’ Federal Bureau of Investigation.

In a verdict delivered Aug 27, 2009, the High Court of Bangladesh stated that deportation of Sadequee to the US without any visa and extradition treaty between the two countries was illegal.