An Egyptian who carried a fake pilot's uniform and forged documents on a September 19 flight from Cairo to New York has been sentenced to six months in prison for lying about why he came to the United States.
A U.S. district judge late on Friday gave Wael Abdel Rahman Kishk, 21, the maximum sentence for telling investigators he was enrolled at a community college in the northwestern United States to study business. Prosecutors alleged he planned to take flying lessons there.
Kishk was acquitted on charges that he planned to impersonate a pilot. He was found at John F. Kennedy international airport carrying a homemade pilot's shirt, two posters of the inside of a Boeing 747 cockpit, a fake Turkish passport, and forgeries of a pilot's medical certificate and student identification from a Florida flight school.
Kishk has one month remaining of his sentence before he will be turned over to U.S. immigration officials to be returned to Egypt.
Pentagon Incident
Meanwhile, a Jordanian-American who drove a tow truck that went through a security checkpoint near the Pentagon on Monday night was released on bail late Friday after spending more than three days in jail.
Family members were quoted by agencies as saying that Imad Abdel-Fattah Hamed, 26, has no connection to terrorism and was arrested because he is a Jordanian national. Federal investigators are still trying to determine why Hamed drove through a police checkpoint and why he had several forms of conflicting identification, including two Virginia driver's licenses in different names.
Officials were initially concerned because Hamed and his passenger were pulled over shortly after a federal alert was issued about potential new terrorist attacks last week.
But a federal magistrate judge decided that Hamed is not dangerous, and prosecutors said they had established his true identity.
Hamed is a copier repairman and a naturalized citizen who also carries a passport from Jordan, officials said. Hamed was released on a 5,000 dollar bond, which was posted by his family. (Albawaba.com)
© 2002 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
