Five Americans Sit for Pakistani Trial on Terror Charges

Local Editor 01-04-2010

Wednesday was the opening day of the Pakistani court's trial of five Americans charged with terrorism and plotting attacks.

The trial could see the five men jailed for life; although the five men aged 19 to 25 deny the charges.

The five Americans were charged on March 17, for funneling money, and plotting terror attacks in Pakistan or an allied country.

The five Americans were named as following: Omar Farooq, Waqar Hussein, Rami Zamzam, Ahmad Abdullah Mini and Amman Hassan Yammer.

Pakistani officials accuse the men of planning to travel to Afghanistan in order to join up with the Taliban militants, but the suspects said that their travel to Afghanistan was for charity work.

However, some investigators say that the suspects planned to travel to South Waziristan, which is a training Islamist network ground in Pakistan's lawless tribal belt, which was subject to a major military operation last year.

Despite the fact that Pakistan is a close US ally, it is full of anti-Americanism, and the US-Pakistan alliance is blamed.