US District Court Judge Kristi DuBose said in court in Mobile, Alabama, that Omid Khalili, also known as Saeid Kamyari, had willingly cooperated after his arrest. “My understanding is that he has given substantial information to the government, which hopefully will be helpful, at least in terms of intel,” she said.
Khalili, 29, pleaded guilty last year and admitted that he tried to smuggle electronic components out of the United States for Iranian F-14 fighter jets.
He was tried in Alabama because the bank to which he sent $70,000 as downpayment for his illicit purchases was there.
He was arrested when he deplaned in Miami last March. US officials have never said how they lured him to the United States. His case resembles that of another Iranian buying arms for the Islamic Republic, who was lured to the Republic of Georgia a few years ago, then arrested and extradited to the United States. The Georgia case was not publicly revealed until after Khalili fell for a similar ruse and was arrested in Miami. Presumably, arms buyers in Iran are no longer willing to leave the country to meet “businessmen.”
Judge DuBose — after hearing details about Khalili’s cooperation outside the earshot of courtroom observers — sentenced the defendant to 2 1/2 years in prison. Khalili will be given credit for the year he has spent so far in a cell. After he is released, prison officials will transfer him to immigration authorities for deportation. It remains to be seen how he will be treated back in the Islamic Republic after his cooperation with the US authorities.
Assistant US Attorney Greg Bordenkircher had sought a prison sentence of 2 years and 10 months, which was a year less than the punishment called for under advisory sentencing guidelines. DuBose said she believed Khalili deserved a larger break.
The case began in November 2009 with contacts between Khalili and an undercover Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent posing as someone who could procure F-14 avionics, which is military jargon for aviation electronics. Bordenkircher said the men exchanged a series of emails and spoke via Skype, the online video conferencing program.
The two agreed on a plan to ship the equipment from the port of Mobile, Alabama, to a third country, Bordenkircher said. The equipment then would be forwarded to Iran.
At the sentencing hearing, the prosecutor, defense attorney and defendant hardly said a word in public. Nearly all of the talking took place in hushed voices in front of the judge’s bench, the Mobile Press-Register reported.
DuBose said she had to weigh the assistance Khalili provided against the seriousness of his crime.
“We have a young man who participated in selling arms to Iran for use in their war efforts against the United States,” she said. “That puts this crime in a whole different light.”
Though it bears similarities to the 2009 prosecution in Alabama of Jacques Monsieur, a Belgian native who admitted trying to buy military jet engines for Iran, authorities said the two cases were not connected. The only similarity was that the ICE agents used the same Alabama bank in both cases.
