A Pakistani-American man was handed out 15 years in prison by a US court after he pleaded guilty for helping an al-Qaeda operative in London in his efforts to combat US forces in Afghanistan. Syed Hashmi, a former college student from Brooklyn pleaded guilty on April 27 to helping an al-Qaeda operative Junaid Babar four years ago while studying in the UK. Hashmi could have spent his entire life in prison but confessed to get a shorter term. Hashmi pleaded guilty to willingly housing an al-Qaeda operative Junaid Babar, between 2004 and 2006 who was providing ponchos, socks and sleeping bags for use by the terrorist outfits in Afghanistan. The 30-year-old also admitted to giving the same operative 300 US dollars to buy a plane ticket to take the gear to Pakistan for al-Qaeda to use. For the last three years, Hashmi has been held in solitary confinement in a Manhattan prison. In the past three years, several human rights organisations have protested against the conditions of his rigorous solitary confinement in the New York prison. Some of his supporters insist he was being prosecuted because he had spoken out against US policies in the Middle East.