RALEIGH, North Carolina (AP) A father said Tuesday that federal prosecutors have falsely accused his Pakistan-born son of planning to join an al-Qaida-linked militant group that was trying to topple Syria's Bashar Assad in that country's civil war.
Javed Sheikh rejected FBI statements that his 29-year-old son Basit Javed Sheikh was on his way to Lebanon, where he'd connect with members of the group Jabhat al-Nusra, when he was arrested at Raleigh's airport. The U.S. government considers the radical Islamic group a foreign terrorist organization
"These are false allegations," Javed Sheikh said in a brief telephone interview. "It's in the court and I hope they will justify the position and all these are false accusations. No reality in that."
Javed Sheikh says he has confidence that U.S. courts will handle the case fairly. Court documents describe Basit Sheikh as a Pakistan native with permanent, legal residency in the U.S.
Basit Sheikh was assigned two federal public defenders to represent him. They are unable to comment on Sheikh's behalf due to a rule established by local federal judges prohibiting them from discussing active cases, said Elizabeth Luck, a spokeswoman for the federal public defender's office in Raleigh.