Australian Innocent of Getting Al-Qaida Money - Download Free Phim, Nhac, Phan Mem, Karaoke

conmeo · #1 (**permalink**) 10-23-2008, 02:51 AM

MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) -- An Australian man who spent time at an al-Qaida training camp in Afghanistan and who met Osama bin Laden was found innocent Thursday of receiving funds from the terrorist group.

Joseph Thomas, a 35-year-old Muslim convert dubbed ''Jihad Jack'' by the Australian media, was convicted on the lesser charge of possessing a falsified passport. He faces a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison and a large fine.

The jury's verdicts marked the end of Thomas' second trial on the charges and a five-year seesaw ride through the legal system since his arrest in Pakistan in 2003.

Outside court Thomas' defense attorney Jim Kennan said his client was very pleased to be cleared of the terrorist-related charge.

''He's had this hanging over his head for many years,'' Kennan said. ''It has been a difficult period for him very obviously and it has now come to the satisfactory end.''

Thomas was arrested after leaving Afghanistan, where by his own admission he spent time in an al-Qaida training camp and met Osama bin Laden, whom he later described as ''very polite and humble and shy.''

He was returned to Australia and charged under tough anti-terrorism laws introduced as part of a security crackdown after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist strikes in the United States.

After his first trial, Thomas was sentenced in 2006 to five years in prison for receiving funds from a terrorist organization and holding a false passport. An appeals court overturned those convictions five months later, saying prosecutors incorrectly relied on an interrogation of Thomas by Australian police in Pakistan.

Thomas' lawyers successfully argued the interview was tainted because he had been threatened with execution and deportation to the U.S. military camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, in earlier questioning by U.S. and Pakistani authorities.

After he was freed, prosecutors argued that new evidence from post-trial media interviews -- in which Thomas talked about bin Laden -- had emerged and Thomas should be retried.

The jury in the second trial Thursday found Thomas innocent of receiving funds from a terrorist organization but guilty of the passport charge. He was released on bail and required to return to court next week for a pre-sentence hearing.

Thomas said he traveled to Afghanistan in early 2001 and had intended to fight with the Taliban in the Central Asian country's civil war. He said he ended up in a militant training camp but that he did not realize it was an al-Qaida camp until he saw bin Laden.

Prosecutors alleged that some time between November 2002 and January 2003, Thomas decided to return home and accepted $3,500 and a plane ticket from a senior al-Qaida member and that he tampered with his passport in an effort to leave Pakistan as he tried to go home.

Since returning to Australia, Thomas has renounced violence and denies being involved in any terrorist plots.

(This version CORRECTS SUBS penultimate graf to timeframe he apparently returned to Australia, corrects to $3,500, sted $3,300.)

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