FBI ‘stung’ Pakistani student faces extradition

LONDON: A genius Pakistani computer programmer alleges he has been let down by the government of Pakistan after Pakistani authorities failed to provide any assistance to the programmer in his bid to avoid extradition from Britain to the United States on computer hacking allegations. Usman Ahzaz, 24, faces extradition to the United States under the Extradition Act 2003 within a week where he will be pitched against the most powerful intelligence of the world, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) which originally claims to have trapped the Pakistani student during a “sting” operation. The lawyers acting for the United States have not made the evidence public and that worries Usman Ahzaz the most.
Usman Ahzaz, who is originally from Lahore, came to Britain on 1st August 2011 and gained admission at Brunel University to study for a degree in Information Systems and Computing.
The university asked him to go back to Pakistan and change his work visa to student status. On 15th of August, the Pakistan student was almost boarding a flight to Pakistan from London’s Heathrow airport when the Metropolitan Police, acting under the request of the FBI, swooped on him and took him to London’s Wandsworth Prison where he was imprisoned till 28th December 2011.
The FBI alleged that Ahzaz had “surreptitiously controlled” more than 100,000 protected computers (a “botnet”) without the owners’ knowledge. Previously, those computers had been infected with malicious software (“malware”), alleges the FBI in the court papers seen by The News.
The FBI goes on to allege that in June 2010, Usman sold “installs” to an undercover FBI agent who paid the Pakistani student US$600 in return for his agreement to “surreptitiously install what he believed to be malicious computer code (provided by the undercover agent) onto the compromised computers within the Appellant’s botnet”.
The FBI has alleged that the software provided to Ahzaz was “indeed installed on more than 100,000 computers” but no harm was caused which shows that it was an entrapment and the Pakistani national was allured into the trap.
Speaking to The News in London, a fearful and distraught Usman Ahzaz, who has exhausted all avenues of appeal, says that Pakistani government is fully involved in this “miscarriage of justice”. He has been tagged and lives under 7pm-10am curfew at one of his relative’s home.
“I have no idea what the Americans will do to me when I am there. I have no money to afford a lawyer there. My lawyers advised me to ask the government of Pakistan to intervene and ask the British government to stop my extradition but the government of Pakistan didn’t do anything for me. I would have liked to have a fair trial in Pakistan. If the government of Pakistan doesn’t do anything to stop my extradition then that will be end of my life.”
The FBI alleged that Ahzaz had hacked 100,000 computers but were unable to prove it in the High Court in London and the number was therefore brought down to 800 computers, which is also unproved. “Whenever I contacted the govt, I was told that they have written to someone but never told me who to.
They never visited me when I was in prison. I was treated like dirt. Pakistani officials didn’t respond to my lawyer’s request for help.
It’s due to the failure of the Pakistani government that I will be extradited to the US to face charges in American courts even after nothing could be proven in London, for the crimes I have never committed,” Ahzaz says.
Lord Justice Gross and Mrs Justice Gloster, sitting at the Royal Court of Justice, said that the extradition request was focused on “an attempt rather than the causing of actual damage” because the computers were not damaged because the FBI provided software to the Pakistani computer programmer which they knew would not cause damage.
Pakistani Community Toha Qureshi MBE said that the unfairness of Britain’s extradition treaty with the US was highlighted recently when computer hacker Gary Mckinnon was spared extradition to the US by the High Court because he had been diagnosed with Asperger’s Syndrome but around the same time Muslim British citizens Babar Ahamd and Talha Ahsan were extradited to the US.
A legal expert, requesting anonymity, commented: “It is outrageous that a foreign intelligence outfit was able to entrap a foreign student on British soil and then Britain allows extradition on very flimsy evidence that the High Court itself states was exaggerated. How will this student be given a fair trial?”
Usman’s solicitor Kaim Todner told The News in a statement: “This case is yet another classic example of the American authorities taking advantages of the unfair Extradition Treaty between the UK and the US.”
A Pakistan High Commission spokesman said that the government of Pakistan has asked British authorities for Usman’s repatriation to Pakistan.
“Our position was he can be prosecuted in the Pakistani Courts as Pakistan has Cyber crime laws and secondly the place of occurrence of the said crime is Pakistan”.
It is believed that the FBI is of the view that the alleged cyber crime took place in Pakistan and Usman used the same email identity that he used for the alleged hacking as well as for taking admission in the Brunel University.