Agus Budiman freed in U.S., cleared of Sept. 11 terror link
Agus Budiman freed in U.S., cleared of Sept. 11 terror link
Matthew Barakat, Associated Press, Alexandria, Virginia
An Indonesian man whose past acquaintance with Sept. 11 terrorist figure Mohammed Atta had concerned law enforcement authorities was sentenced Friday to time already served in connection with an identify fraud case.
In announcing the sentence, a federal judge declared what Agus Budiman had maintained all along: that no evidence linked him to the Sept. 11 attacks in any meaningful way.
"There is no indication from what I've been presented, that you had anything to do with the events of Sept. 11," U.S. District Judge Gerald Bruce Lee said before sentencing Budiman to seven months in jail, equal to the time he has served.
Budiman, an Alexandria, Virginia, resident and native of Indonesia, spent much of his time in solitary confinement at the jail here. It is expected that the Immigration and Naturalization Service will deport him and that Budiman will not fight that.
"He wants to go home" to Indonesia, said his attorney, William Moffitt. "Would you want to stay here ... having been pilloried as he has?"
Moffitt said his client was a victim of guilt by association and criticized the government's prosecution.
"We are living in an age where things are blown out of proportion," Moffitt said.
Budiman's sentence was roughly in line with those given to about a half-dozen others who pleaded guilty to document fraud discovered in connection with the Sept. 11 investigation. In many of those cases, first appearances suggested a strong link to the hijackings that never materialized.
In Budiman's case, he acknowledged that he knew Atta from a Hamburg mosque they attended together in the 1990s and even once helped Atta move into an apartment there.
Budiman's name was also listed on the visa applications of Ziad Jarrah, one of the Sept. 11 hijackers, and Ramsi Binalshibh, who was never admitted into the country and was at one point identified by FBI Director Robert Mueller as the would-be "20th hijacker." Budiman never gave those men permission to list his address, his lawyers said.
The man whom Budiman helped to obtain a fraudulent ID from the Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles, Mohammed bin Nasser Belfas, is listed as a contact for Osama bin Laden in a list of 370 terrorism suspects released last year by Finnish authorities. But Moffitt pointed out that Belfas is living freely in Hamburg, even giving interviews, and has not been brought to the United States to face any charges.
Prosecutors did not object to Budiman's sentence. Assistant U.S. Attorney John Morton declined comment after the hearing.
Budiman, who smiled broadly at the conclusion of the case, was relieved and pleased that the judge had exonerated him of any connection to Sept. 11, said Budiman's brother, Ahmad Faisal.
"He wants to leave the country. I want him to leave the country ... because of the way he's been treated," said Faisal, who attended Friday's hearing. "I don't think it's right."