Manhattan, NY – A man unwittingly swept up in a failed terror plot to bomb Times Square last year was sentenced on Thursday to three years’ probation.
Join our WhatsApp groupSubscribe to our Daily Roundup Email
Mohammad Younis had pleaded guilty to charges he arranged an illegal transfer of $7,000 to Faisal Shazad — money Shazad claimed that the Pakistani Taliban provided to fund his one-man strike against New York City.
Younis and his brother in Pakistan were part of underground money transfer system known as hawala, authorities said. When the Times Square attack was in the planning stages, Younis’ brother sent him the cash that he delivered to Shazad at a Long Island railroad station.
Prosecutors in federal court in Manhattan acknowledged that Younis never knew about Shazad’s plot. But they argued that a potential sentence of up to six months would be appropriate to deter money transmissions that could fund terrorism.
Attorneys for the Pakistan-born Younis asked for leniency, describing him as a working-class immigrant who posed no danger.
“I’m really sorry,” Younis told the judge before he was sentenced. “It will not happen ever, ever again.”
Shazad is serving a life sentence after admitting he built a car bomb he left in Times Square to avenge U.S. military intervention in Muslim countries. The bomb malfunctioned but still spread fear throughout the city.
That’s it just probation. Suddenly the excuse I didn’t know is acceptable?!
I’m affraid the Judge himself is a sponsor of terror!
Williamsburger logic is really off
Broker a kidney and get 10 yrs behind bars.
The system is broken.
The way we Jews have informal banking systems, such as the gemach, other people do too. Koreans, Chinese and Japanese have loan clubs and Muslims have the hawala system, which complies with Islamic laws on banking. The prosecutors admitted that Younis didn’t know the intended use for the money, so he had no intent to aid terrorists. When a Jew is in need of a loan, how well do we check to make sure the money isn’t to be used improperly?