Kashmiri separatist Syed Ghulam Nabi Fai was on Friday sentenced to two years of imprisonment by a court in Virginia, USA, for "conspiracy to defraud the US" by concealing that he received at least $3.5 million from Pakistan's spy and terrorism agency Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) to fund lobbying efforts on Kashmir. After being cornered by the judge, the 62-year-old Fai waxed defiant, saying he was fighting for an independent Kashmir and not for a state controlled by Pakistan. However, he was unable to answer why in that case he was being funded by the ISI. When his 24-month of jail term is over, he will be on 'supervised release' or parole; which means his movements would continue to be closely tracked. The judge also asked Fai not to contact US officials or agents of the government of Pakistan and ISI. However, Fai won't be jailed immediately. Represented by Nina Ginsberg, he requested the court to allow him to surrender after graduation of his daughter on 25 June, a plea which the judge granted. Fai, a resident of Fairfax, Va, was a longtime executive director of the Washington-based Kashmiri American Council, parading as an independent lobbyist. But last year he pleaded guilty to using a network of straw donors to hide the fact that the ISI had provided him with $3.5 million in funding over a two-decade career of Kashmiri advocacy. ''You participated in a conspiracy to defraud the US and completely deceive the IRS (Internal Revenue Service). ''You knew Pakistan and the ISI was paying you in a manner because your actions would be consistent with theirs and you would represent their voice and you were willing to do so," Judge Liam O'Grady of a court in Alexandria, Va, a suburb of Washington DC, said before announcing the verdict. The judge also said, "He (Fai) clearly knew he is being paid ... Pakistan has lost wars with India on Kashmir and so Pakistan is looking for other means to achieve its objectives." Fai was arrested by the US Federal Bureau of Investigation on 19 July last year and had subsequently pleaded guilty before the court to the charges of being a paid agent of the ISI. After listening to both sides and also for a few minutes from Fai himself, the judge said, "sentencing is necessary" even though he has done "moving things" on behalf of people of Kashmir. ''Fai spent 20 years operating the Kashmiri American Council as a front for Pakistani intelligence," said US Attorney Neil MacBride after the sentencing. The US attorney added, "He lied to the Justice Department, the IRS and many political leaders throughout the United States as he pushed the ISI's propaganda on Kashmir." Fai told the court when the judge gave him a brief hearing, ''Words possibly can't define the damage that I have done to my beautiful family and friends in the US and the damage that I have done to the Kashmir cause. I never intended to harm anybody in the world, never intended to harm the US. My sole motivation was to work for the people of Kashmir and their right of self-determination." Fai said he has written 25 articles proposing that the best solution to the Kashmir problem was independence of Kashmir. While sentencing him, the judge said, "I do not doubt your love for people of Kashmir." Earlier, the US Justice Department had recommended that Fai be sentenced to four years of imprisonment. He faced a maximum potential sentence of five years in prison for the conspiracy count and a maximum three years in prison for the tax violation. Fai's attorney Ginsberg tried to argue on the grounds of illegal surveillance, saying that in past 20 years, US federal agencies intercepted some 350,000 emails and 90,000 telephone calls to and from Fai. She also unsuccessfully argued that Fai was also in contact with Indian leaders and officials and some of his views were consistent with the views of the Indian government. "The Indian Government sought him out on a regular basis for some kind of peaceful resolution of the Kashmir issue," Ginsberg said. Referring to the more than 50 letters of support in favour of Fai that were submitted to the judge early this week, Ginsberg said many of them are eminent people from India. One of them, she said, is the great grandson of Mahatma Gandhi. However, government lawyer Kromberg riposted, ''The Indian government long knew that Fai was an agent of Pakistan and the ISI.'' He added that the Kashmiri American Council was one of three ISI funded outfits in the West, the other two being in London and Brussels. Fai's advocacy would have been legal if he had registered as a foreign agent. But he did not do so and explicitly lied about his ISI links on multiple occasions, the court ruled. After the sentencing, Fai struck a slightly defiant tone before mediapersons outside the court. ''I fight a worthy fight - freedom for Kashmir. I sacrifice for a worthy cause - independence for Kashmir,'' Fai said. He was initially charged with conspiring to violate the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA). But the plea bargain he struck charged him only with tax violations related to his scheme of using straw donors, as well as making false statements. Attorney Gordon Kromberg argued that Fai essentially ran a ''false flag'' operation for the ISI and that he operated the Kashmiri American Council as a front for Pakistan for 20 years. Fai was well known on Capitol Hill and internationally for his advocacy on behalf of Kashmir, and was especially known for an annual peace conference he sponsored to address the Kashmiri dispute between India and Pakistan. However, it is now clear that he was all along acting with instructions and funding from Islamabad.







