NEW YORK — The owner of a satellite-TV company pleaded guilty Tuesday to providing material aid to a terrorist organization by letting customers receive broadcasts from Hezbollah’s television station.
Javed Iqbal, 45, entered the plea in U.S. District Court in Manhattan. As part of the plea, Iqbal agreed to serve a prison term of up to 6 1/2 years. Sentencing was set for March 24.
Prosecutors said Iqbal, who has lived in the United States more than 20 years, used satellite dishes on his Staten Island home to distribute broadcasts of Al Manar, the television station of the Lebanon-based organization that has been fighting Israel since the early 1980s.
Israel and the U.S. consider Hezbollah a terrorist organization and accuse it of being behind deadly attacks in Lebanon and abroad. Prosecutors said the First Amendment does not protect someone from engaging in a profitable commercial relationship when the underlying conduct is illegal.
