A Puzzling Case for Federal Terrorism Investigators
Dan Herbeck
Buffalo News
__________
New York (US):
The strange case of Abbas Gandomani is one that puzzles federal terrorism investigators and even his lawyer. Since his arrest Oct. 11 in Niagara Falls, the Iranian citizen has been held in a federal jail in Batavia.
He is accused of making false statements to agents from the Joint Terrorism Task Force of Western New York. According to court papers, he told federal agents four different times that he is a former member of an Iranian terrorist organization and that he once took part in the assassination of a government official in Iran.
Then, after taking a polygraph examination that indicated he was lying, Gandomani told the agents that he made it all up. Now, the 42-year-old Gandomani and his family are hoping the United States government will grant him asylum and eventually allow him to move to Toronto to be with his parents and other relatives.
"It's an unusual case," said Assistant U.S. Attorney William J. Hochul Jr., who handles most of the region's counterterrorism cases. "I've never been involved in a case before where a person has claimed to be a member of a terrorist group and then tried to discount it."
Dec 26, 2005
Dan Herbeck
Buffalo News
__________
New York (US):
The strange case of Abbas Gandomani is one that puzzles federal terrorism investigators and even his lawyer. Since his arrest Oct. 11 in Niagara Falls, the Iranian citizen has been held in a federal jail in Batavia.
He is accused of making false statements to agents from the Joint Terrorism Task Force of Western New York. According to court papers, he told federal agents four different times that he is a former member of an Iranian terrorist organization and that he once took part in the assassination of a government official in Iran.
Then, after taking a polygraph examination that indicated he was lying, Gandomani told the agents that he made it all up. Now, the 42-year-old Gandomani and his family are hoping the United States government will grant him asylum and eventually allow him to move to Toronto to be with his parents and other relatives.
"It's an unusual case," said Assistant U.S. Attorney William J. Hochul Jr., who handles most of the region's counterterrorism cases. "I've never been involved in a case before where a person has claimed to be a member of a terrorist group and then tried to discount it."
Dec 26, 2005
