Washington, July 28: Kashmiri separatist Ghulam Nabi Fai on Tuesday admitted to receiving funds from Pakistan's ISI to influence U.S. law makers on Kashmir.
He made the admission through his lawyers in a Virginia court, which released him on a bond but put him under house arrest with a radio tag around his ankle for electronic surveillance.
62-year-old Fai, a Kashmir-born U.S. citizen, was arrested by the FBI last week and charged with working for the government of Pakistan, in particular its spy agency.
During FBI questioning, Fai had told federal agents that he did not have any connection with the ISI.This fact was acknowledged by Fai's two attorneys, Nina J. Ginsberg and Khurram Wahid, but they argued that taking money from ISI did not mean he toed their line.
“He [Fai] denied that he received money from ISI before arrest....There are many many reasons, it may be that could justify why he is not wanting that information [receiving money from ISI] to be public,” said Mr. Ginsberg.
At his detention hearing, Magistrate Judge Rawles Jones at the U.S. District Court in Alexandria, Virginia, a suburb of Washington, ordered Fai be released from prison on a personal bond of $100,000 and put under house arrest with electronic surveillance.
He has been asked to stay with his wife at the Fairfax residence in Virginia.
Both he and his wife, Chang Ning Ying Q, who is of Chinese origin, have been asked to surrender their passports. PTI
