Info:
Muhammad Pahlawan is charged with attempting to smuggle advanced missile components, including a warhead he is accused of knowing would be used by the Houthi rebels against commercial and naval vessels in the Red Sea and surrounding waters. He is also charged with providing false information to U.S. Coast Guard officers during the boarding of the vessel.
Pahlawan’s co-defendants — Mohammad Mazhar, Ghufran Ullah and Izhar Muhammad — were also charged with providing false information.
Pahlawan’s attorney, Assistant Supervisory Federal Public Defender Amy Austin, said Pahlawan had an initial appearance in U.S. District Court Thursday and is scheduled to be back in court Tuesday for a detention hearing. She declined to comment on the case.
“Right now, he’s just charged with two crimes and we’re just at the very beginning stages, and so all we know is what’s in the complaint,” Austin said when reached by phone Thursday.
According to prosecutors, Navy forces boarded a small, unflagged vessel, described as a dhow, and encountered 14 people on the ship on the night of Jan. 11, in the Arabian Sea off the Somali coast.
Navy forces searched the dhow and found what prosecutors say was Iranian-made weapons, including components for medium range ballistic missiles and anti-ship cruise missiles.
All 14 sailors on the dhow were brought onto the USS Lewis B. Puller after Navy forces determined the dhow was not seaworthy. They were then brought back to Virginia, where criminal charges were filed against four and material witness warrants were filed against the other 10.
According to an FBI affidavit, Navy forces were entitled to board the ship because they were conducting an authorized “flag verification” to determine the country where the dhow was registered.
The dhow was determined to be flying without a flag and was therefore deemed a “vessel without nationality” that was subject to U.S. law, the affidavit states.
According to the affidavit, the sailors on the dhow admitted they had departed from Iran, although at least one of the men initially insisted they departed from Pakistan.
The affidavit states that crew members had been in contact multiple times by satellite phone with a member of Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard.
PAHLAWAN’s Materially False Statements
PAHLAWAN was one of the mariners on the dhow when the Boarding Team boarded. A Pakistani identification card with PAHLAWAN’s name and photograph was found on the dhow.
During the boarding process, members of the Coast Guard’s MSST, asked PAHLAWAN, through an interpreter, about, among other things, his role on the dhow and the cargo on the dhow. In response, PAHLAWAN made the following materially false statements.
First, PAHLAWAN identified himself as the engineer on the dhow. As discussed below, almost all of the mariners identified PAHLAWAN as the captain of the dhow in subsequent interviews with the FBI.
Second, similar to MAZHAR, PAHLAWAN stated that the real “captain” got off of the dhow before the Navy boarded the dhow. In addition to most of the other mariners describing PAHLAWAN as the captain, PAHLAWAN’s statement is at odds with his subsequent interview, where he explained that the real “captain” never got onboard the dhow.
Third, PAHLAWAN stated that he was not aware of any cargo on the dhow. As discussed below, there is probable cause to believe that PAHLAWAN was aware of the weapons on the dhow.
These false statements were material to the Coast Guard’s MSST because they influenced the Coast Guard’s understanding of who was in charge of the dhow and the cargo on the dhow.
Also Known As:
Muhamad Pahlawan
Country:
Iran
Reason for the color:
» justice.gov – UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF VIRGINIA;