Federal judge overturns 2006 terrorism conviction for California man

A federal judge on Tuesday threw out a California man’s 2006 conviction for providing material support to terrorists and lying to the FBI about it, according to The New York Times.

Hamid Hayat was sentenced to 24 years in prison in 2007 but on Tuesday, Judge Garland E. Burrell Jr. of the U.S. district court in Sacramento threw out the conviction, citing inadequate legal representation.

In his ruling, Burrell wrote that Hayat’s lawyer, who had never served in a criminal case in federal court before, failed to use testimony from witnesses who could have provided an alibi.

{mosads}Hayat’s attorney, Dennis Riordan, said he is now seeking his client’s immediate release from prison in Phoenix, which could be delayed if federal prosecutors appeal.

“Hopefully he comes out tomorrow or the next day,” Hayat’s sister told the Times. “We’re all going to get together and cry, hug him.”

Prosecutors say they will review the decision, according to the Times.

“We are in the process of reviewing the district court decision and assessing what steps, if any, should be taken and considering all our options,” a spokesperson for the Office of the United States Attorney for the Eastern District of California, which prosecuted the case, told the newspaper.

Hayat and his father were both charged in 2005 for allegedly belonging to a Lodi, Calif.-based al Qaeda cell. Charges against the elder Hayat were dropped after he pleaded guilty to lying about how much money he had taken out of the country.

Hayat, meanwhile, was convicted in 2006 after signing a confession, which Riordan maintains was coerced. Six witnesses at a hearing last year on the adequacy of his representation gave him an alibi for the dates prosecutors alleged he attended a terrorist training camp.

The Sacramento chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations praised the ruling.

“At the time of Hamid’s case, the prosecution took advantage of anti-Muslim, post-9/11 bias to convict an innocent man,” the chapter said in a statement. “And this much-needed good news comes at a time when Islamophobia and bigotry as a whole is on the rise.”