NEW YORK — A Muslim cleric accused of double-crossing law enforcement officials investigating a scheme to blow up New York’s subways was spared jail time at his sentencing Thursday after he told a judge he never meant to help the “idiots” involved in the plot.
But the imam wept as he was ordered to leave the United States within 90 days and never come back.
Ahmad Wais Afzali, 38, who came to New York from Afghanistan as a child, pleaded guilty to lying to authorities investigating the September 2009 plot, which prosecutors have said was one of the most serious threats to U.S. security since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
The lie stemmed from a phone conversation Afzali, acting as a police informant, had with Najibullah Zazi last fall. Prosecutors charged Afzali with lying after he denied tipping off the Aurora man that law enforcement authorities had been asking about his activities.
In his plea, Afzali acknowledged he had told Zazi that police were inquiring about him, but he said it was an innocent comment and not aimed at derailing the investigation.
“Honest to God, it was never my intention to help those idiots,” Afzali said, referring to Zazi and two other suspects arrested in connection with the case.
Under terms of the plea deal, Judge Frederic Block sentenced Afzali to time already served — from his arrest Sept. 20 until his release on bond Sept. 24 — and ordered him to remain under electronic surveillance while he arranges to leave the country.
“You’re going to have to make peace with yourself outside of the United States,” Block told Afzali.
Defense attorney Ronald Kuby denied that Afzali’s chat with Zazi had prompted Zazi to abort his bomb plot and try to dodge authorities. He said law enforcement blew its cover when police pulled Zazi over for a supposed traffic violation last September in New York.
