January 05, 2005

Lakhani trial startsNews

Hemant Lakhani, a British Asian who’s spent decades in London’s clothing industry, was put on trial in New Jersey today for trying to sell anti-aircraft missiles to terrorists. Here’s the twist: unbeknownst to him, his supplier was from Russian law enforcement, his buyer was an FBI agent, and the only missile he actually got his hands on was a dummy. He’s arguing entrapment:

[I]n London’s West End rag trade, people, who have known him for over 35 years, describe him as more a Del boy, a character in the BBC’s popular comedy serial Only Fools and Horses. Del Boy in the serial tries out all sorts of get-rich-quick schemes, risking brushes with law, but invariably fails. Lakhani is truly the same character, say a large number of people here. “He is truly a complete loser.”

Lakhani tried to duck responsibility:

Mr Lakhani claims he was entrapped by the US agent, who kept offering more money whenever he failed to find any missiles. “He’d say I’ve got $20m (£10.6m), I’ve got $10m, I’ve got so many million. All these temptations and temptations.”

But he completely incriminated himself with his anti-U.S. statements:

“He spent more than a year and a half trying to smuggle 200 missiles into the United States, all the time issuing advice on how to shoot planes out of the sky to shake the US economy.”… Lakhani, a Hindu, had allegedly told the agent: “You must target 10 to 15 different airports at the same time,” and added: “If Allah blesses us we can finish this.” He also offered a “dirty” bomb for £1.6 million.

The odd thing about this case is that Lakhani is a 69-year-old, long-married Hindu with no prior terrorist ties. That suggests a mercenary motive more than an ideological one. The central question is, was he a Walter Mitty, or was he for real?

manish on January 5, 2005 08:12 PM in News · T·r·a·c·k·b·a·c·k address · Direct link · Email post