MIAMI, March 4: An elderly Muslim cleric in the US was convicted on Monday of funnelling thousands of dollars to support the Pakistani Taliban. Hafiz Khan, the 77-year-old imam at a Miami mosque, was found guilty of two conspiracy counts and two counts of providing material support to Taliban. Each charge carries a potential 15-year prison sentence.

Prosecutors built their case largely around hundreds of FBI recordings of conversations in which Hafiz Khan expressed support for Taliban attacks and discussed sending about $50,000 to Pakistan.

There were also recordings in which Khan appeared to back the overthrow of the Pakistan government in favour of Islamic law, praised the killing of American military personnel and praised the failed 2010 attempt to detonate a bomb in New York’s Times Square.

Khan insisted the money he sent overseas was for family, charity and business reasons — above all, his madressahs in Swat Valley.—AP