NEW YORK, Dec 23: The Pakistan-born owner of a satellite television company has pleaded guilty to providing material aid to Hezbollah by letting customers receive broadcasts from its television station.

Javed Iqbal entered the plea in federal court in Manhattan on Tuesday. He declined comments afterwards. As part of the plea, Iqbal agreed to serve a prison term of up to six and a half years. Sentencing was set for March 24.

Prosecutors say Iqbal used satellite dishes on his Staten Island home to distribute broadcasts of Al Manar, the television station of the Lebanon-based organisation that has been fighting Israel since the early 1980s.

Iqbal, 45, was born in Pakistan but has lived in the United States for more than 20 years. He is a permanent resident with five children. A former New York Police Department officer was among those who signed his $250,000 bail package.

Although Americans are granted freedom of speech under the First Amendment to the Constitution, the government contended in this case that Iqbal was not entitled to arrange the satellite broadcast of an organisation designated as a terrorist group, regardless of the message.

Lebanon’s information minister, Ghazi Aridi, had criticised Iqbal’s arrest, calling it an “attack against freedoms (that) robs a large section of people from watching a specific channel”.—AP