17 Facts About Ahmed Ajaj

Ahmed Mohammad Ajaj is a Palestinian citizen who is convicted of participating in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing.

Ahmed Ajaj is currently serving an 84-year sentence at USP Coleman for taking part in the bombing.

Ahmed Ajaj returned to Pakistan via the UAE, arriving June 14,1992, and began the bomb building course.

On September 1,1992, at Kennedy airport Ahmed Ajaj was sent to secondary immigration inspection, where he claimed he was a member of the Swedish press, travelling as Khurram Khan with International Student Identification card and a falsified Swedish passport.

Ahmed Ajaj's Supervisor overruled Morales's recommendation to detain Yousef on grounds the INS detention center was full - even though Yousef had committed acts of immigration fraud, and given inspectors evidence linking him to Ahmad Ajaj.

Ahmed Ajaj made a claim for political asylum and was released in the United States pending a hearing.

Ahmed Ajaj's passport revealed his June 15,1992 Pakistani entry stamp was counterfeit.

Ahmed Ajaj told authorities he had a political asylum claim from a prior entry in February 1992, and was detained pending a hearing.

Ahmed Ajaj later pleaded guilty to use of an altered passport and served six months in prison.

Later that same day, a call from Ahmed Ajaj was transferred to Yousef, permitting the two to speak directly.

Ahmed Ajaj was rearrested in connection with the attack March 9,1993, and his asylum request was denied on April 24,1993.

In jail at the time of the WTC bombing, Ahmed Ajaj was convicted of having played a role "in the early stages of the conspiracy" and convicted of nine counts, sentenced to 240 years, fined $250,000, and ordered to pay 250 million dollars in restitution.

Ahmed Ajaj did not give up on his political asylum claim.

Ahmed Ajaj's request was denied April 24,1993, on grounds that a passport holder from a visa waiver country who uses a fraudulent passport is not entitled to such a hearing.

Not satisfied with that outcome, Ahmed Ajaj asked to file a new political asylum claim and was given ten days by an immigration judge to do so.

In 2021, one of Ahmed Ajaj's convictions was overturned, reducing his sentence by 30 years.

Ahmed Ajaj was the only remaining plaintiff in a lawsuit by federal prisoners alleging harm from secondhand smoke seeping through the air filtration system at SuperMax.