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Onetime terror suspect pleads guilty to fraud

NEW YORK (CNN) -- A jailed Indian immigrant who was detained as a material witness in the September 11 attacks investigation pleaded guilty Thursday to credit card fraud.

Mohamed Jaweed Azmath, 37, who has spent nearly nine months in jail, entered his plea before a federal magistrate in Lower Manhattan.

Federal guidelines for the charge recommend a prison sentence of eight to 14 months. Defense attorney Anthony Ricco said he would ask the court to sentence Azmath to time served when the sentence is pronounced, which could come as soon as early July. Azmath faces no other charges.

Azmath admitted selling a Social Security number and another identification card in 1999 to a man who obtained credit cards in the name "Azmath Jaweed" and ran up unpaid balances totaling $58,747, according to the federal authorities. Azmath netted only a few hundred dollars for his part in the scheme, his attorneys said.

The government initially suspected Azmath of far worse criminal activity.

He and his traveling companion, Syed Gul Mohamed Shah, 34, also from India, lived in Jersey City, New Jersey, and flew from nearby Newark to San Antonio, Texas, on September 11, authorities said. Immediately following the attacks, the jet in which they were flying was forced to land in St. Louis, Missouri, when federal officials closed U.S. airspace to private and commercial traffic.

Azmath and Shah continued their journey to Texas by rail: On September 12, they were pulled off an Amtrak train outside Forth Worth, Texas, during a routine drug inspection. A police report stated that the men appeared nervous, and that they were carrying a combined $5,500 cash, money-wire receipts, and box-cutter type knives and hair dye. Azmath had numerous passport photos, they said.

Azmath was relocating to Texas, his lawyer said.

"He was in the wrong place at the wrong time," Ricco said.

After his arrest, Azmath was transported to New York and detained for 92 days before he was permitted to see a lawyer, Ricco said. Some guards called him "one of the bombers" and treated Azmath roughly, Ricco said.

"They thought they had someone, and they pressed him and pressed him," Ricco said. "Civil liberties were put on hold, because the government was dealing with a tragedy of enormous proportions."

Ricco said he expected the government would deport Azmath, who had been in the United States illegally on what he called "an improper visa." Azmath has a wife and son in India.

Shah's case is still pending. He allegedly sold 15 counterfeit credit cards bearing the name "Ayub Ali Khan" in a scam that ran up $414,000 in unpaid charges. Because Shah was charged with swindling more money, he faces a stiffer sentence.