Abu Hamza’s British-Indian aide jailed in US

A 41-year-old Indian-origin British man, suffering from paranoid schizophrenia, has been sentenced to 20 years in prison by a court here for trying to set up an al-Qaeda training camp in the US on the orders of Abu Hamza, a UK-based Islamist extremist preacher.

Haroon Aswat, a Gujarati Muslim born in the UK had pleaded guilty to terror charges in March and has already served 11 years in a US jail. Aswat from West Yorkshire in northern England could qualify for early release in six years.

“Aswat has been sentenced to 20 years in prison for terrorism offenses relating to <g data-gr-id="13">establish</g> a terrorist training camp in the United States,” India-born Preet Bharara, Attorney for the Southern District of New York, and John Carlin, Assistant Attorney General for National Security, said after the Manhattan Federal court sentenced him on Friday.

“Aswat’s 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 international terrorism cases continues to be delivered in American civilian courts,” the Indian-origin attorney said.