College Park teacher gets 15 years for aiding terrorists

Friday, Aug. 25, 2006

A third-grade teacher at Al Huda School in North College Park was sentenced to 15 years in prison Friday for his participation in the ‘‘Virginia Jihad Network.”

Ali Asad Chandia, 29, was the last of a group of 11 Muslim men charged in Alexandria, Va. U.S. District Courts for training with Lashkar-I-Taiba, a group fighting against the Indian government and labeled a terrorist organization by the U.S. government, according to a Washington Post report.

Six of the men pleaded guilty to charges of aiding terrorists, three were convicted in court and two men were acquitted, the Post reports.

Prosecutors originally sought a sentence of 30 years to life in prison, the Post report reads, while defense lawyers said Chandia deserves a maximum sentence of 6 1⁄2 years.

A Washington Post article quotes Chandia defending himself while exiting the courtroom: ‘‘With Allah as my witness, I tell everyone that I am innocent. ... God knows that I did not support and would not support any terrorists.”