Man from Dewsbury jailed in United States for 20 years on terrorism charges

He was accused of helping to try to set up a training camp to support al-Qaida in Oregon in 1999 under orders from radical cleric Abu Hamza, the London imam.

The British national of Indian origin could now apply to serve his sentence in the UK.

Afterward, defense lawyers said their client would receive credit for 10 years he spent behind bars in Britain fighting extradition and an additional year for his time in US custody.

Haroon Aswat, who suffers from paranoid schizophrenia, cut a despondent figure in the Manhattan federal court, dressed in a faded prison shirt and wearing his long dark hair plaited in braids.

At Hamza’s behest Aswat and another man, Oussama Kassir, flew to the United States to set up the Oregon camp.

The court heard he spent six weeks in Seattle and Oregon in 2000 as part of a plot to set up a training camp for al-Qaeda recruits, who wanted to fight in Afghanistan.

Authorities say a ledger recovered from an al Qaeda safe house in Pakistan in 2002 listed a number of individuals associated with the Islamic militant group, including Aswat.

US District Judge Katherine Forrest said it was “of the greatest importance” that he receive specialist psychiatric care and that the court would support him serving out his sentence in Britain.

His extradition from the United Kingdom to the USA was blocked by the European Court of Human Rights amid concerns he would not get suitable medical treatment but went ahead in October 2014 once the U.S. authorities provided adequate assurances.

The safe house was used by Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the supposed mastermind of the September 11 2001 attacks.

But prosecutors have asked for the maximum sentence of 20 years, calling him a “loyal and devoted follower” of Abu Hamza. On September 15, 2009, U.S. District Judge John F. Keenan sentenced Kassir to life in prison.

Quijano had proposed a term of 12-and-a-half years for Aswat, arguing he never condoned violence.

He had been under orders from Abu Hamza, who was sentenced to life in prison in January for a series of terrorism offences.

“But Assistant US Attorney Shane Stansbury said to paint Aswat as a pacifist would be ‘a complete distortion of the truth”.

Aswats conviction and the sentence imposed today – along with the other recent terrorism prosecutions by this Office, including of Sulaiman Abu Ghayth, Abu Hamza, and Khaled al Fawwaz – serve as further proof that justice in worldwide terrorism cases continues to be delivered in American civilian courts.”. I have chosen patience over retaliation, forgiveness over enmity and peace over violence, he told Forrest.