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.