Family prays for lenient sentences for terrorists' helpers

By Megan Matteucci

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

More than 2,900 students, civil rights activists and friends have written letters to a federal judge asking for a lenient sentence for an Atlanta man convicted of helping terrorists.

Eshanul “Shifa” Sadequee and his friend, former Georgia Tech student Syed Haris Ahmed, are scheduled to be sentenced Monday morning in U.S. District Court in Atlanta.

On Sunday night, Shirim Sadequee told the AJC she spent the entire weekend praying for her son and his friend. The mother is asking U.S. District Judge William Duffey to consider her son’s ailing health since his incarceration when he makes a decision on his future.

“We want to release Shifa and Haris. Both boys are very young and they have been in prison for three and a half years,” the mother said from her Roswell home.

In addition to the mother’s plea, more than 2,900 students from Bangladesh have sent letters to the judge asking him to sentence Sadequee to the time he has served or the minimum sentence under the federal guidelines, the mother said.

On Sunday night, Sadequee’s two sisters and friends held a rally in Midtown to pray and gain support prior to the sentencing, the mother said.

The rally was hosted by the Free Shifa Campaign, Atlanta Transformative Justice Collaborative and the Kindred Southern Healing Justice Collective, which is headed by Sadeqee’s sister.

In August, a jury found Sadequee, 23, guilty of conspiracy to provide support to terrorists and attempting to aid terrorists, particularly Lashkar-e-Tayyiba -- a Pakistan-based terrorist organization.

Ahmed, 24, was convicted of aiding terrorists in June.

The two men have been jailed in solitary confinement since 2006.

Since then, Shirim Sadequee said she has seen her son and his friend lose more than 10 pounds each.

“Both of their health is broken,” she told the AJC Sunday night. “They look like sick persons. Their skin is pale and they are very weak.”

Prosecutors are seeking 20 years in prison for Sadequee and 15 years for Ahmed. The maximum penalty for Sadequee’s four counts is 60 years.

Prosecutors said they possibly halted an overseas terrorist attack with the convictions. According to prosecutors, Sadequee talked about waging violent attacks in Pakistan, northern Europe and on U.S. oil refineries.

“We can wait until something happens or things get very close to happening,” then-U.S. Attorney David Nahmias said in August. “I think we all learned on Sept. 11, we don’t wait any more.”

Shirim Sadequee said her son was just “talking” about jihad and exploring ideas with other youth.

“These are just boys and they need to release them,” she said.