Ghulam Nabi Fai

Washington, July 27 (PTI): Separatist Ghulam Nabi Fai has admitted in a Virginia court that he received funds from the ISI to influence lawmakers on Kashmir.

He was released on a $100,000 bond but put under house arrest with a radio tag around his ankle for electronic surveillance.

Fai, 62, a Kashmir-born US citizen who was arrested by the FBI last week on charges of working for the Pakistan government, told the court yesterday through his attorneys that he took money from the ISI.

Prosecutor Gordon Kromberg alleged that Fai had been an ISI agent for the past two decades. He told the court that during Fai’s interrogation after his arrest on July 19 he acknowledged his links with the ISI and admitted receiving money from the Pakistan spy agency.

During the FBI questioning, Fai lied to federal agents that he had any connection with the ISI.

This fact was acknowledged by his two attorneys — Nina J Ginsberg and Khurram Wahid — but they argued that taking money from ISI does not mean that he toed their line. “He (Fai) denied that he received money from the 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,” Ginsberg said.

At his detention hearing, judge Rawles Jones at a Court in Alexandria, Virginia, a suburb of Washington, ordered that Fai be released from prison on a personal bond of $100,000 and put under house arrest.

He has been asked to stay with his wife at their Fairfax residence in Virginia. Both he and his wife Chang Ning Ying Q, who is of Chinese origin, were asked to surrender their passports.

Fai headed the Kashmir American Council, which backed the cause of Pakistan on Kashmir and campaigned against India in the US.

“The release (order) has a lot of meaning. It means that he (Fai) can help more easily in preparing the defence. He is required to live in his home and have electronic monitors so that he can’t go to any place that he is not permitted by the court to go. But he will be able to meet with his lawyers and be active in preparing defence of his case,” Ginsberg said.