By Adam Pincus
The next day, his mother, father and sister were detained on immigration charges and placed in removal proceedings, a spokesman for the U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement said.Shahawar Matin Siraj, 24, who was convicted May 24 in part based on evidence provided by a paid New York Police Department informant, was given the maximum penalty by U.S. District Judge Nina Gershon.Siraj's lawyer, Martin Stolar, had requested in court filings that his client be given only 10 years because he said the convicted man had limited intelligence. Siraj, who lived in Jackson Heights after moving to the United States from Pakistan, was accused by prosecutors of being the key to a plan to place bombs in subway tunnels.The public was never in danger, prosecutors said at trial, because the individuals who were to have supplied the bomb-making materials were working for law enforcement. Stolar maintained that Siraj, who was arrested days before the 2004 Republican National Convention in New York, was the victim of entrapment in the plot to place explosives at the 34th Street subway station. Siraj father Abdul Rehman, 54, mother Shahina Parveen, 50, and sister Sanya Siraj, 19, came to the United States in 1999 and lived in Jackson Heights.Reach reporter Adam Pincus by e-mail at news@timesledger.com or by phone at 718-229-0300, Ext. 154.
