SEATTLE – A former USS Abraham Lincoln sailor told a jury on Wednesday that he participated with the owner of a Middle Eastern and Pakistani food store to set fire to the south Everett business in July 2004.
Naveed Muhammad Kahn, 22, said the owner of Continental Spices befriended him and even contacted his parents in Michigan.
Kahn testified that defendant Mizra M. Akram. 39, became more like an older brother, and therefore he agreed to help set fire to the business in a strip mall at the intersection of Casino Road and Evergreen Way to collect the insurance.
“He said he had no other choice but to do that,” Kahn told jurors in U.S. District Court.
Akram, a Pakistani national, is charged with arson and conspiracy to commit arson, crimes that could net him up to 20 years in prison if he is convicted.
The trial, which started last week, could continue into Monday or Tuesday.
Kahn, who also was born in Pakistan, is an alleged co-conspirator and the key witness against Akram. Kahn already has pleaded guilty to the same crimes and is scheduled for sentencing Feb. 16 by U.S. District Court Judge Marsha Pechman.
His Everett lawyer, Harvey Chamberlin, said federal prosecutors agreed to consider a reduced sentence for Kahn due to his testimony and cooperation in the case.
The defense contends that Kahn set the fire on behalf of someone else and his testimony is meant only to get a good deal for himself.
Akram first mentioned a fire three weeks before the July 9, 2004, blaze gutted the store, Kahn testified. He said Akram told him he had tried to sell the business but hadn’t been able to do so.
“He said he knew how to get away with it” and mentioned someone he knew on the East Coast who had collected insurance after an arson, Kahn testified.
“He was doing bad, and I wanted to help out a friend. He was more like a brother,” Kahn testified.
The plan was for Kahn, who was stationed with the Navy in Bremerton at the time, to rent a car and drive to Everett. Kahn then was to drive Akram home to give him an alibi, and Kahn was to set the fire.
On the evening before the blaze, Kahn said both men poured gasoline on the floor and food. It was then that Kahn learned that Akram intended to spray-paint crosses and anti-Arab graffiti inside the store to make it look like a hate crime.
Kahn told the jury he was more ashamed of the graffiti than of setting the fire.
Akram changed plans at the last minute and lit an incense stick in the store, planning for it to burn down and ignite the gasoline. When that didn’t work, Akram talked Kahn into going into the store and lighting the gas with a match, Kahn testified.
Kahn’s testimony is backed up by records of numerous phone calls between Kahn and Akram the morning of the fire.
Reporter Jim Haley: 425-339-3447 or haley@heraldnet.com.
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