A Castor Gardens resident has admitted that he lied on immigration forms about his ties to a pro-Islamic, anti-Western terrorist group in his native Afghanistan and will be deported, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office. Hayatullah Dawari, 62, pleaded guilty on Friday to two counts of immigration fraud and was sentenced to two years in federal prison. U.S. District Judge Stewart Dalzell immediately suspended Dawari’s sentence and ordered him to relinquish his status as a legal permanent resident of the U.S. He will be banned from ever returning to the country.
In August, authorities arrested Dawari, who reportedly lived on the 7200 block of Calvert St., alleging that he failed to report his past association with Hezb-e-Islami Gulbuddin (HIG), an insurgent group in Afghanistan and Pakistan with ties to al-Qaida and a mission of overthrowing the Afghan government while establishing a fundamentalist Islamic state there. ••
