US: Indian handed 15-year jail term for supporting Hezbollah

A 50-year-old Indian, who was residing illegally in the United States, has been sentenced to 15 years in prison by a court for conspiracy and attempting to provide material support to Lebanese group Hezbollah.

Patrick Nayyar, was sentenced in Manhattan federal court on Monday by US District Judge Robert Sweet for crimes related to the support he attempted to provide to Hezbollah, which has been designated as a foreign terrorist organisation by the US.

Nayyar was convicted in March 2012 after a seven-day jury trial, US Attorney for the Southern District of New York Preet Bharara said.

According to the superseding indictment filed in court, between July 2009 and September 2009, Nayyar and his co-conspirator, Conrad Stanisclaus Mulholland, agreed to provide weapons, ammunition, and vehicles to Hezbollah.

During a series of meetings with a confidential informant working with the FBI, who represented himself as able to deliver materials to Hezbollah, Nayyar and Mulholland agreed to sell guns, ammunition, vehicles, bulletproof vests, and night-vision goggles to the confidential informant.

During these meetings, Nayyar and Mulholland also provided the informant with a handgun, a box of ammunition, and a pick-up truck, believing that the informant would deliver the items to Hezbollah in Lebanon.

Nayyar was charged in the Southern District of New York in October 2009, following his arrest at his residence in Queens, New York in September 2009 on a separate charge.

Nayyar's co-conspirator Mulholland, 47, who is not a US citizen and resides abroad, left the country before charges were filed, and remains at large.