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Virginia: Kurds avoid jail for money
transfers
27.6.2006
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Judge Cites Community Support And Dangers Of
Hawalas
HARRISONBURG -- A federal judge ordered
probation yesterday for three local Kurdish refugees
convicted of running an illegal money-transmission
service linking U.S. Kurds to those in northern
Iraq.
Nearly 200 local supporters of Ahmed Abdullah, Amir
Rashid and Rasheed Qambari filled up the gallery in
the main U.S. District Court room and crowded the
downtown street corner outside.
Many believe the men, whose application for
citizenship had been put on hold, were unfairly
ensnared in Patriot Act anti-terrorism legislation
for merely helping others send money to their
distressed homeland.
However, U.S. District Judge Glen E. Conrad told the
men that, while their intentions were good, their
unlicensed money-transfer service was potentially
dangerous to Americans.
Conrad was impressed with the community support for
the men. But he told them that their neighbors also
are interested in being secured against terrorism.
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Greeting his supporters, Rasheed Qadir Qambari
smiles following the lenient sentence handed down by
a federal judge on Monday. He and two other Kurdish
men got probation, instead of a prison term for an
unlicensed money transferring business, after
community support from about 100 people who packed
the courtroom in Harrisonburg.
Photo:dailynews-record com |
"That's why we have the very laws that you are being
prosecuted under today," the judge said.
The men violated a provision of the Patriot Act
because they failed to register their service with
the Virginia State Corporation Commission.
William F. Gould, an as- sistant U.S. attorney,
noted that the Harrisonburg Kurds didn't know many
of the people on either end of the money transfers
-- neither senders in the U.S. nor recipients in
Iraq.
Congress made such operations a felony because
terrorists have been known to use such transmissions
to fund criminal activity without the money
transmitters knowing it, Gould argued.
Still, hundreds in the Harrisonburg area backed the
men, believing they were the victims of overzealous
prosecution. Many formed a grass-roots organization
called "Standing With Our Neighbors." Several held
large signs for their cause outside the federal
courthouse yesterday.
Conrad ordered Abdullah, 31, to serve 18 months of
probation, pay a $1,000 fine and forfeit to the
government $2,000 he pocketed from the
transmissions.
The judge ordered Rashid, 36, to serve one year of
probation, pay a $250 fine and forfeit $1,018. He
ordered Qambari, 38, to serve three years of
probation, pay a $4,500 fine and forfeit $2,000.
The judge criticized Qambari and Abdullah for
minimizing the scope of their transmissions when
they were first questioned three years ago on the
eve of the U.S. invasion of Iraq.
Rashid was punished for operating Abdullah's
transmissions for about a year starting in 2002
while Abdullah was on a trip to the Middle East.
The judge said he was harshest on Qambari because he
is better educated and more articulate than Abdullah
and Rashid.
"You should have known better," Conrad said.
After yesterday's hearings, Qambari was chastened
but beaming outside the courthouse, where he chatted
with fellow Kurds in their native tongue and bummed
a cigarette.
"It shows the great justice of the United States,"
he said. "He [Gould] wanted prison time for me, but
the judge denied it. . . . I can promise that
Rasheed won't be in any courts for any future
violations."
A fourth suspect in the illegal transmission
business, Fadhil Noroly, is scheduled for a federal
trial next month.
timesdispatch com
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