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Eqbal Ahmad

Released
Date of birth:1933
Date of death:11. 05. 1999
Age:66 Deceased
Gender:Male
Race:Middle Eastern
Era:1970s
State:Illinois
Time Imprisoned:
1 Year 2 Months 24 Days
Support
Anti-Imperialism Anti-War
Eqbal Ahmad

Biography

Pakistani-American political scientist born in Bihar, partition refugee, Princeton PhD 1967. Former adviser to Algerian FLN delegation in Paris under Frantz Fanon. The only non-Catholic and only South Asian among the Harrisburg Seven, indicted January 1971 as alleged "mastermind" of the Kissinger-kidnap plot. After the April 1972 mistrial he was a Senior Fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies, founding director of the Transnational Institute (1973-75), and Hampshire College professor (1982-1997). Died in Islamabad of colon cancer.

Case

Charges: Conspiracy to kidnap Henry Kissinger and to bomb federal heating tunnels (Harrisburg 7 indictment, 1971; mistrial)
Arrested: Jan 11, 1971
Incarcerated: Jan 11, 1971
Released: Apr 4, 1972
Sentence: Hung jury April 5, 1972; mistrial; government declined to retry.
Prosecutor: William S. Lynch
Judge: Hon. R. Dixon Herman
Convicted: Hung jury — effectively acquitted