The family of California terror suspect Hamid Hayat made a tearful plea Wednesday for the federal government to show mercy and release him from prison after a federal judge’s order vacating his 14-year-old conviction, the Sacramento Bee reports. “I want to tell the government, ‘Please, end this now and release my brother from federal prison in Phoenix, Arizona, today,” said Raheela Hayat, his sister. Hayat’s family and friends gathered with supporters and one of their lawyers after U.S. District Judge Garland Burrell ordered Hayat’s 2006 conviction and 24-year sentence vacated. Burrell agreed with the findings of a federal magistrate judge that Hayat’s original lawyer had not provided an effective defense.
U.S. Attorney McGregor Scott said the ruling related only to the lawyer Hayat hired and did not determine his guilt or innocence. Scott oversaw the original prosecution of Hayat, now 36, and fought back appeals aimed at showing Hayat had been railroaded into making a false confession to FBI agents. Hayat was accused of attending a terrorist training camp in Pakistan and planning to wage jihad on the United States. Hayat had visited Pakistan with his family in 2003 on what his lawyers say was a trip for his mother to receive medical treatment and to find a wife for him. His original lawyer had never tried a criminal case in federal court. His legal team successfully argued that she had failed to provide a competent defense and had not called witnesses in Pakistan who could have testified that he was never out of their sight long enough to train as a terrorist.