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."