A federal judge threw out the terrorism charges against a young Muslim cleric from Broward County in a trial where he and his father, an imam in Miami, are accused of providing financial support to the Pakistani Taliban terrorist organization.
Izhar Khan, the imam of a mosque in Margate, will be a free man later Thursday after U.S. District Judge Robert Scola issued a verdict of acquittal for the 26-year-old Muslim scholar.
The prosecution, which rested its case Wednesday in the material support trial, failed to mount sufficient evidence of wrongdoing against the younger imam, imam of Masjid Jamaat Al-Mumineen mosque off Sample Road.
“I do not believe in good conscience that I can allow the case to go forward against Izhar Khan,” Scola ruled Thursday.
The judge also noted that the government nonetheless “proceeded in this case against Izhar Khan in good faith.”
After the judge’s verdict, the defendant hugged defense lawyer Joseph Rosenbaum and members of his Margate mosque shook each other’s hands, quietly celebrating.
Both father and son have been held in the Miami federal detention center since their arrest in 2011 on charges of funneling about $50,000 to the Taliban to target U.S. interests in Pakistan. The Taliban allegedly used the funds for buying arms and other ammunition to carry our terrorist attacks against the Pakistan government, which is a U.S. ally.
Scola already denied Hafiz Khan’s bid for an acquittal verdict halfway through the trial. Scola said Thursday that the government’s case against the 77-year-old imam of the Flagler Mosque is overwhelming.
The government’s case has been built largely on FBI-recorded phone conversations between Hafiz Khan and other members of his family and suspected Taliban sympathizers. His bank records have also been central to the government’s case against him.
This article will be updated as more information is available.
Judge throws out Taliban terror case against Margate imam
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Judge throws out Taliban terror case against Margate imam
