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Finally free after Kafkaesque ordeal, Mohammed Azmath is on his way home

After spending months in US jails, waiting to have his name cleared of terrorism charges, Mohammed Azmath's journey back to India is being expedited at unusual speed.

Azmath's lawyer Steven Legon told rediff.com that his client had been transferred from the custody of the US Bureau of Prisons to the Immigration and Naturalization Services.

What surprised Legon, he said, was that the transfer took just 24 hours. "That is unheard of," he explained. "Usually the transfer takes two to four weeks."

Azmath, 36, was sentenced in a Manhattan court September 18 on charges of credit card fraud, for a term of nine months. He was also ordered to pay $76,000 in restitution.

Azmath and Syed Gul Mohammed Shah, natives of Hyderabad, were initially believed to be prime suspects in the 9/11 attacks after being taken from a train in Texas on September 12, 2001, where authorities found box cutters and several thousand dollars in their bags.

Legon said he has been trying to find out Azmath's location -- he had been told that Azmath was being held in a facility in New Brunswick, New Jersey -- since he was transferred into the hands of the INS, but has run into a wall of bureaucracy.

Legon explained under INS rules, they don't have to let Azmath's lawyer know where he is being held.

"By the time I locate him, I wouldn't be surprised if he was already on his way," Legon said. "He can be put on a plane at any time. I don't believe I'll see him again."

Legon hoped to find him before then, and have Amnesty International involved in monitoring Azmath's progress in captivity.

Azmath's lead counsel Anthony Ricco (who defended the four men charged with bombing US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania) told the court at Azmath's sentencing that he was 'housed under the most severe conditions I have ever witnessed.'

Ricco said in his initial interviews with Azmath, he found him shackled, manacled, and the interviews were videotaped. Azmath had been abused, he said, by authorities, in cruel fashion, such as being locked outside in the cold and rain for hours.

US Judge Shira Scheindlin ruled Azmath could go with time served. 'There's no question that the 12 months he's been in custody in this country have been under unusually harsh conditions,' she told the court.

Scheindlin said her decision to let go Azmath early was out of consideration for his family in India, who face deportation. 'The sooner he can get home, the more chance he has to save his family.'

Addressing the court, Azmath said he 'was singled out on train as a suspect of terrorism,' and that the government 'labeled me ... damaged my life. I am unable (to be) normal again.'

Legon said Azmath had been profiled. "He was in the wrong place, at the wrong time, with the wrong ethnic background."

On September 11, Azmath and Shah were on a San Antonio-bound plane that took off from Newark, but then was grounded in St Louis. They then transferred to a train, but were pulled off on September 12 in Fort Worth, Texas, when authorities thought they acted suspiciously.

The natives of Hyderabad explained they had given up their jobs at a newsstand in Newark Penn Station to come to Texas and open up a fruit stand. Searching through their luggage, authorities found black hair dye, a knife, over $7,000 in cash and box-cutters. They then were arrested, and transferred to New York.

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