NY imam's lawyer weighs entrapment defence
An attorney for a mosque leader accused of plotting to obtain a shoulder-fired grenade launcher said he may defend his client by arguing that authorities entrapped him.
Yassin Muhiddin Aref, 34, was arrested Thursday and charged with aiding a government informant in a fake plot to buy the weapon to assassinate a Pakistani diplomat.
Aref is the imam of the Masjid As-Salam mosque in Albany. Also arrested was Mohammed Mosharref Hossain, 49, one of the mosque's founders.
For all latest news, follow The Daily Star's Google News channel. They were arrested as part of an FBI sting operation; the Justice Department says the informant led them to believe they were taking part in the purchase of an RPG-7 grenade launcher for the assassination of Pakistan's ambassador to the United Nations.
"I'm very skeptical about the government's case,'' Aref's lawyer, Terry Kindlon, said Friday. "My initial reaction is that entrapment is going to be our defence at trial.''
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