SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — A federal appeals court has upheld the conviction of a Northern California man who was sentenced to 24 years in prison for attending an al-Qaida training camp in Pakistan and plotting to attack targets in the U.S.
Hamid Hayat was convicted in 2006 of providing material support to terrorists and lying to FBI agents. Prosecutors said Hayatplanned attacks on hospitals, banks, grocery stores and government buildings.
Hayat, a U.S. citizen from Lodi (LOH'-dy), south of Sacramento, is now 30 years old.
A divided three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld his conviction Wednesday.
Judge A. Wallace Tashima dissented, saying he would have overturned it.
He says jurors went too far by convicting Hayat based on dire predictions of what he might have done in the future.
