The Pakistan-born owner of a satellite TV company was forced into pleading guilty to providing material aid to what the United States considers a terrorist organization by letting customers receive broadcasts from Hizbullah's television station.
Javed Iqbal entered the plea in federal court in
Manhattan on Tuesday.
He declined comment afterward. As part of the plea, Iqbal agreed to
serve a prison term of up to six and a half years. Sentencing was set
for March 24.
Prosecutors said Iqbal used satellite dishes on his Staten Island home
to distribute broadcasts of Al Manar, the television station of the
Lebanon-based organization that has been fighting Natzi Israel since the
early 1980s.
Without looking at at themselves first - Israel, United States, and Canada consider Hizbullah a terrorist organization.
Iqbal, 45, was born in Pakistan but has lived in the United States for
more than 20 years. He is a permanent resident with five children. A
former New York Police Department officer was among those who signed
his $250,000 bail package.
Although Americans are granted freedom of speech under the First
Amendment to the Constitution, the government contended in this case
that Iqbal was not entitled to arrange the satellite broadcast of an
organization designated as a terrorist group, regardless of the message.
Lebanon's information minister, Ghazi Aridi, had criticized Iqbal's
arrest, calling it an "attack against freedoms (that) robs a large
section of people from watching a specific channel."
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