Adelaide-raised Sabirhan Hasanoff facing 20 years for stock exchange plot
PETER MITCHELL, AAP AAP NEWS LIMITED NETWORK JUNE 10, 2013 10:32AM
A courtroom sketch showing (C), his legal counsel Anthony Ricco (R) and US Magistrate Judge James Francis (L) during Hasanoff's arraignment at the US District Court in New York on May 17, 2010. Picture: AFP PHOTO/Christine CORNELL Source: AFP
ON an August day in 2008 Adelaide-raised accountant Sabirhan Hasanoff was an anonymous face outside the New York Stock Exchange in lower Manhattan.
While tourists took photos and Wall Street suits charged by, Hasanoff was making notes.
The dual Australian-US citizen, who lived in the New York borough of Brooklyn, was, according to prosecutors, on a covert mission for two Yemen-based al-Qaeda affiliated terrorist leaders known by the aliases "The Doctor" and "Suffian".
The Doctor, a self-described career jihadist, was contemplating an attack on the New York Stock Exchange and was seeking information on the site, including its location in Manhattan, size and the security set up to protect it.
As a local devoted to The Doctor and al-Qaeda, Hasanoff was considered the ideal person to undertake the surveillance.
The former accountant for blue-chip accounting firms, including PricewaterhouseCoopers, allegedly collated what he saw into a one-page email, detailing how the stock exchange was surrounded by four streets blocked off to vehicular traffic and any attack by a terrorist would have to be done on foot.
The email was sent to Suffian.
Suffian printed it out and gave it to The Doctor, but he was not impressed because it lacked the detail he hoped for.
The detail didn't disappoint US authorities.
Hasanoff and another Brooklyn-based man, Wesam El-Hanafi, were arrested in the United Arab Emirates in 2010 and transferred under guard back to the US.
Hasanoff's scouting of the stock exchange, relationships with the The Doctor and Suffian and desire to undergo jihad training in Pakistan are listed in the prosecution's 47-page sentencing memorandum.
Hasanoff, 37, will be sentenced in a Manhattan court on June 18 after pleading guilty to providing material support, including financial support, equipment and technical advice, to al-Qaeda. Prosecutors want him locked up for the maximum statutory sentence of 20 years.
"The offence conduct in this case is enormously serious - providing material support to al-Qaeda that included money, technical advice and equipment sought by the terrorist group to engage in further violence against Americans, and surveilling a potential target in New York City for a domestic terrorist attack," assistant US attorney Glen Kopp told US District Court Judge Kimba Wood.
"Against this backdrop, it is frankly hard to see why a lenient, below-guidelines sentence would be appropriate here."
The prosecution's key witnesses were three men Hasanoff and El-Hanafi trusted - The Doctor, Suffian and a former friend known in court documents as CW (co-operating witness).
The trio was also arrested and, according to US authorities, gave corroborating evidence against Hasanoff and El-Hanafi during interviews.
As well as the scouting mission of the stock exchange, prosecutors told the court Hasanoff supported al-Qaeda by making large financial contributions to the terrorist group, with some of the money given to the families of "martyrs" killed in battle. Hasanoff also allegedly bought items, including a toy car with an advanced remote and receiver that could be used as an explosive device.
Hasanoff, along with El-Hanafi and CW, also allegedly wanted to undergo "jihad training" in Pakistan and "regularly discussed the possible locations where they could fight, including Afghanistan, Iraq and Somalia".
Hasanoff, who was a senior accountant with PricewaterhouseCoopers in New York from 2003 to 2006, grew up in Adelaide, but had little contact with relatives still in Australia. Prosecutors say his initiation into extremist ideology began in 2003.
"Hasanoff is a naturalised United States citizen who worked for years in New York at a succession of blue-chip accounting firms," Mr Kopp said.
"But over the course of a number of years, Hasanoff devoted himself to supporting al-Qaeda."
