[wvns] Queens imam is freed

Imam Ahmad Afzali released on bail

Queens imam accused of lying to FBI is freed
September 24, 2009
By DANIEL EDWARD ROSEN
Newsday
http://www.newsday.com/news/new-york/queens-imam-accused-of-lying-to-fbi-is-freed-1.1472383

The Queens imam charged with lying to federal authorities investigating an alleged terror conspiracy was released Thursday after his family posted a $1.5-million bail.

Standing next to his wife, Fatimah, in front of their three-story brick house in Flushing, Ahmad Wais Afzali, 37, said he was "grateful" to be home and he was looking forward to a hot shower and a hot meal.

"I've been living in America for the past 30 years. I've been raised in the same house that you see. This is my land, this is my country, and I love this place," Afzali told reporters who had gathered outside his home.

Afzali, a permanent legal resident from Afghanistan, is accused of lying to the FBI about whether he tipped off terror suspect Najibullah Zazi, 24, of Aurora, Colo., who has been the focus of an investigation in New York and Colorado into a terrorist bomb plot. Zazi was charged Thursday with one count of conspiring with others, who are not named, to use "one or more weapons of mass destruction," court papers say, including bombs or other explosives. Zazi's father, Mohammed Zazi, 53, also of Aurora, also was arrested and charged with making false statements to federal authorities.

In New York, Afzali declined to answer reporters' questions regarding Zazi other than to say Zazi used to visit the mosque.

"As an imam of the masjid where he worshipped, I knew him when he was 14 years old.

That's it; that's about it," Afzali said Thursday. "Zazi, he used to come to the mosque, then he would disappear from the mosque. And the last time I saw Zazi was God knows how many years ago."

Afzali's attorney, Ron Kuby, said his client did not know anything about a terror plot.

"Obviously, the government would not be consenting to bail if it thought he was involved in a terrorism conspiracy," Kuby said.

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