10 Years for Smuggling Equipment to Hizbullah
A former Ford engineer who pleaded guilty to providing support for a designated Mideast terrorist group has been sentenced to 10 years in prison.
Federal prosecutors say Fawzi Assi, formerly of Dearborn, had global positioning modules, night vision goggles and a thermal imaging camera when he was arrested in July 1998 while trying to board a plane for Lebanon.
The prosecutors say the 49-year-old Assi was attempting to supply the equipment to Hizballah, which the State Department has designated as a foreign terrorist group. He fled the U.S. in 1998 but returned in 2004 to face charges.
Assi told U.S. District Judge Gerald Rosen in Detroit yesterday that he didn”t know what he was doing was illegal. Rosen gave him credit for the 4 1/2 years he”s already served in prison.