Spy or boot guy?
Feds: Fake-Ugg seller works for Hezbollah
To the government, Ali Kourani was a highly trained terrorist in a Hezbollah sleeper cell, lying in wait in the Bronx. But his lawyer insists Kourani is a fake-Ugg boots salesman with a crumbling marriage.
Those were the conflicting portraits being painted for a jury in Manhattan Federal Court as the unusual trial of the accused Kingsbridge Heights terrorist got underway.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Amanda Houle said Kourani was trained by Hezbollah from the age of 16. He learned how to collect intelligence, fire machine guns and foil interrogators. He put down roots in the Bronx on orders of Hezbollah higher-ups and by 2009 was a U.S citizen, prosecutors say. He allegedly gathered intel on potential targets, including the Jacob K. Javits Federal Office Building at 26 Federal Plaza, for future terrorist attacks.
“He was now a spy for Hezbollah. Ready to plan attacks in the United States,” Houle said.
In 2013 Kourani (photo) was busted by the NYPD selling counterfeit Uggs. He was on law enforcement’s radar and his cover was falling apart, according to prosecutors. After his wife took their kids and moved to Canada, Kourani approached the FBI, offering them information in exchange for “benefits,” Houle said.
Kourani, 34, wanted the FBI to get his children back from his wife, arrest his wife’s family, give him a highpaying job and an apartment in a doorman building, Houle said. But Kourani’s intel on Hezbollah wasn’t valuable enough to the FBI and they arrested him instead.
“The defendant miscalculated. His plan failed,” Houle said. “The U.S. government was not prepared to provide benefits and a doorman building to a terrorist.”
Kourani attorney Alexei Schacht told the jury that the government had it all wrong. Kourani grew up in southern Lebanon, where Hezbollah — considered a terrorist organization by the U.S. — is part of the government and daily life. The FBI approached Kourani numerous times asking for his cooperation, Schacht said. As his marriage became strained he decided to indulge them in meetings he believed were confidential.
“My client is not and was not a terrorist,” Schacht said.
“A highly trained terrorist operative doesn’t sell fake Ugg boots as their job.”