How did Hamid, a young American citizen of Pakistani descent,
end up in such a nightmare?
Hamid's story begins in 2000 after a visit to Pakistan. While studying the Quran there, he contracted meningitis, a disease which wore him down physically and mentally. He returned to his family in Lodi, California, where he led the life of a typical teen, engrossed in video games and cricket matches - until he befriended a new man in town that would change his life forever.It was this toxic relationship with Naseem Khan, an undercover FBI informant whose own mother testified to being nothing more than a "bagful of lies," that led Hamid Hayat from a simple life to one supposedly embedded in a ‘sleeper cell of terror’ to the confines of a federal
prison cell in the span of a few years.
FBI informants are known to entrap vulnerable, innocent Muslims -
in fact, many cases we fund have elements of FBI involvement.
With your help, we can protect and defend our community
from falling victim to these traps.
The FBI paid Naseem Khan $230,000 over the span of three years to prey on Hamid’s vulnerability and radicalize him by encouraging him to go to ‘jihad’. His friendship evolved into bullying and threats. Hamid eventually distanced himself from Naseem and tried to move on. He married a woman in Pakistan, and boarded a flight home to Lodi to arrange for her arrival and their new life together.
That’s when the FBI closed in. Hamid’s flight was diverted to Tokyo, his name popping up on the "no fly" list. He was questioned by the FBI about training at a terrorist camp - which he denied - before being allowed to continue on to America. Once in Lodi, FBI agents appeared at his home and asked him to come in for another interview at their local office.
Hamid innocently complied. He went into the FBI office alone, while his father waited outside. It was during this interrogation (lasting nearly 11 hours, of which only a portion was recorded) that Hamid, with minimal education and understanding - timid, tired, and trusting - said whatever he thought the agents wanted to hear so that he could finally go home. He made up stories in answer to leading questions and falsely confessed to attending terrorist training camps in Pakistan, awaiting orders to wage holy war in America. Hamid did not get to go home that night.
Despite the holes in his story and contradictory information that was withheld and even disputed by the agents themselves, the FBI proceeded to use this confession to charge him with material support of terrorism and lying to the FBI.
The government played on Islamophobic tropes to paint Hamid as a dangerous criminal, without any evidence of actual wrongdoing. Their closing statement to the federal grand jury: "Hamid Hayat had a jihadi heart and a jihadi mind."
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Despite little evidence and lack of an actual crime, Hamid Hayat was convicted on all counts in 2006 and sentenced to 24 years in a federal prison. His family lost their house trying to pay legal fees, lost their son to false imprisonment, and lost their hope of a better life in America.
But Hamid’s case was fraught with problems - from the ineffective representation by his novice defense lawyer, to the secret evidence used against him at trial, to the absence of witness testimony that would have corroborated his innocence, and even allegations of jury misconduct.
In 2014, Muslim Legal Fund of America financially supported expenses related
to a 2255 motion, the equivalent of a habeas corpus petition, to argue for Hamid Hayat’s innocence and freedom.
MLFA funded witness and expert testimony that could prove Hamid’s innocence. In 2018, a Federal judge finally agreed to hear the evidence. Earlier this year, she wrote a 116-page recommendation that the conviction of Hamid Hayat be vacated. The case ended up back in the court of the Judge who originally presided over Hamid Hayat’s first trial in 2006 - but this time, he overturned Hamid’s conviction.
A few weeks later, Hamid was back in Lodi with his family - just in time for Eid.
