U.S. convicts three men of Jihad plot

RALEIGH, N.C. (Reuters) - A U.S. jury found three North Carolina men guilty on Thursday of conspiring to provide material support to Islamist militants in foreign countries.

The indictment named the three men, all in their 20s, as Mohammad Omar Aly Hassan, Ziyad Yaghi, both U.S. citizens, and Hysen Sherifi, a native of Kosovo and U.S. resident.

It said Boyd, a drywall contractor from Willow Spring, North Carolina, had drawn his sons and the other men into a plan to travel abroad to help Islamist militants, although prosecutors have said there was no indication they were linked to any international militant organization.

The indictment added that Boyd had travelled between 1989 and 1992 to Pakistan and Afghanistan, "where he received military-style training in terrorist training camps for the purpose of engaging in violent jihad."

It added that from at least November 2006, when the federal investigation began, Boyd conspired with the other defendants "to provide material support and resources to terrorists, including currency, training, transportation and personnel."

Boyd and Sherifi were also accused of conspiring to kill U.S. military personnel "in an attack on government and military installations in Virginia and elsewhere."

The federal jury found Sherifi guilty on five counts, including three counts of conspiring to provide material support to terrorists; to murder, kidnap, maim and injure persons; and to kill a federal officer or employee. He also was convicted of two counts of possessing a firearm in furtherance of a crime of violence.

The jury found Yaghi guilty on two counts of conspiracy. Hassan was convicted on one count of conspiracy to provide material support to terrorists, but acquitted on a second count of conspiring to murder, kidnap, maim and injure people, court records show.

The government's case was based largely on secretly recorded conversations between the defendants and statements from a confidential informant.

Mauri Saalakhan, director of the Peace Through Justice Foundation, based in the Washington D.C. area, attended closing arguments and said the convictions were brought about by "a post-9/11 atmosphere of fear and patriotism."

"I just feel it was a terrible miscarriage of justice that doesn't make America any safer," Saalakhan said.

(Edited by Colleen Jenkins, Cynthia Johnston and Sandra Maler)