May 31, 2007	Thursday	Jamadi-ul-Awwal 14, 1428

NEW YORK, May 30: An American citizen of Pakistani descent extradited to the United States by British authorities on Tuesday pleaded not guilty to charges of conspiring to send money and military gear to associates of Al Qaeda, according to the New York Times.

The newspaper said that Syed Hashmi, 27, was sent to New York late Friday night from London, where he was arrested last June while trying to board a flight to Pakistan at the Heathrow Airport.

Mr Hashmi had been in custody in England since his arrest. It was the first time a terror suspect had been extradited from Britain to the United States, prosecutors told the Times.

Mr Hashmi was ordered held in lieu of bail at a bail hearing on Tuesday in the Federal District Court in Manhattan. Officials said he was carrying a large amount of cash at the time of his arrest and was planning to send it to Al Qaeda for use against American forces in Afghanistan.

Mr Hashmi had been living in England for almost three years at the time of his arrest but was charged in the US because he is an American citizen. He was born in Pakistan and came to the United States as a child, officials said. Until about four years ago, Mr Hashmi, who graduated from Brooklyn College, had an address in Flushing, Queens.

US officials said he was a former member of Al Muhajiroun, a London-based group, now ostensibly disbanded, which had praised the 9/11 attacks. The group has been linked to the Finsbury Park Mosque in London, which investigators called a magnet for terrorists. According to a federal indictment handed up last year, Mr Hashmi conspired to provide “material support or resources” to members of Al Qaeda between January 2004 and May 2006. The indictment said the military gear was to be transported to Al Qaeda associates in South Waziristan, Pakistan, and used by Al Qaeda fighters against US forces in Afghanistan.