Chicago cabbie pleads guilty in terror case

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In this courtroom drawing Raja Lahrasib Kahn, 56, appears before U.S. Magistrate Judge Geraldine Soat Brown in federal court, Tuesday, March 30, 2010, in Chicago. Raja Lahrasib Kahn, a Chicago cabbie charged with attempting to send money to a Pakistan-based terrorist with alleged ties to al Qaida, was ordered held without bond Tuesday. Khan is charged with attempting to provide material aid to terrorism by sending cash to Pakistan-based terrorist leader Ilyas Kashmiri. (AP Photo/Verna Sadock)

Updated: March 8, 2012 8:09AM

A Pakistani-born Chicago taxi driver has pleaded guilty to attempting to provide material support to al-Qaida as part of a plea deal hammered out recently with prosecutors.

Dressed in an orange jumpsuit and his ankles shackled, Raja Lahrasib Khan told a judge Monday that he was pleading guilty to one of two counts of attempting to provide material support.

As part of the plea deal, prosecutors dropped the other count against the 58-year-old.

Khan was accused in 2010 of taking steps to send cash to Pakistan-based terrorist leader Ilyas Kashmiri.

A conviction on just one count of providing material support carries a maximum 15-year sentence. The plea deal recommends a sentence of between five and eight years.

No sentencing date has been set.

Khan has been held in a federal jail in Chicago since his arrest two years ago. The naturalized U.S. citizen pleaded not guilty shortly after his arrest.

FBI agents arrested Khan in March 2010 while he was downtown driving his cab. Federal authorities said at the time that Khan had been overheard in conversations claiming ties to Kashmiri, an alleged terrorist leader in Pakistan who was charged in a separate terrorism case in Chicago.