Kashmiri separatist leader Fai put under house arrest

US-2NDLD FAI
From Lalit K Jha
Washington, Jul 27 (PTI) Separatist leader Ghulam Nabi
Fai, accused of funnelling Pakistani ISI's cash into the US to
influence lawmakers on Kashmir, was on Wednesday released on a
USD 100,000 bond by a court, which put him under house arrest
with a radio tag on his knuckles for electronic surveillance.
62-year-old Fai, a Kashmir-born US citizen, was arrested
by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) last week on
charges of working for the Government of Pakistan, in
particular its spy agency ISI, to lobby at the Capitol Hill
and Obama administration on Kashmir.
At his detention hearing, Magistrate Judge Rawles Jones
at US District Court in Alexandria, Virginia, a suburb of
Washington, ordered that Fai be released from prison on a
personal bond of USD 100,000 and put under house arrest with
electronic surveillance.
He has been asked to stay with his wife at the Fairfax
residence in Virginia. Both he and his wife Chang Ning Ying Q,
who is of Chinese origin, have been asked to surrender their
passport.
Fai headed the Kashmir American Council (KAC), which
espoused the cause of Pakistan on Kashmir and campaigned
against India in the US.
"The release (order) has a lot of meaning. It means that
he (Fai) can help more easily in preparing the defence. He is
required to live in his home and have electronic monitors so
that he can't go any place that he is not permitted by the
court to go. But he will be able to meet with his lawyers and
be active in preparing defence of his case," Fai's attorney
Nina J Ginsberg told reporters.
Ginsberg said that charges against Fai, who is accused of
being an unregistered foreign agent, carry maximum penalty of
five years on conviction.
"It is highly unlikely that his sentence would be
anywhere in that range," the attorney said.
Giving details of the court's order, Fai's another
attorney Khurram Wahid said the Kashmiri separatist leader is
allowed "home detention" with electronic surveillance. "He
will have a little electronic monitor around his ankle."
"He (Fai) is obviously not allowed to have any contact
with the foreign government (except through attorney). He is
also not supposed to have contact with anyone who is alleged
in the affidavit ... people who are supposedly with the ISI,"
Wahid said.
His attorneys also claimed that Fai took money from ISI
but never toed their line, a statement which was strongly
contested by federal prosecutors during the court hearing
yesterday.
The federal prosecutors told the court that Fai not
only received USD four million from ISI, but also strictly
followed their agenda on Kashmir.
Responding to questions from the defence attorney,
Special FBI Agent Sarah Webb Linden told the court that Fai's
agenda was heavily dictated by the ISI.
In fact, for his every meeting, agenda and speeches, he
received bullet points from his ISI handlers in Pakistan. Fai
did, what "ISI asked him to do," she said.
US Attorney Gordon Kromberg said that Fai has been a
ISI agent for the past two decades.
He told the court that during his interrogation after his
arrest on July 19, Fai had acknowledged to his links with the
ISI and having received money from the Pakistani spy agency.
Fai's attorneys argued that taking money from ISI does
not mean that he toed their line. PTI LKJ
ASR