KINGSTON – Ismail Shabazz, the Kingston activist who pled guilty last October to attempted weapons sale, wants to withdraw his plea.
Shabazz, 61, is scheduled to be sentenced next month to two years in prison, but he wants to tell the court that he changed his mind.
Shabazz told Mid-Hudson News on Monday that he had applied for a pistol
permit so he could work in private security, but it was held up in bureaucracy,
and that is when he was approached by undercover FBI agents posing as
gun runners to African liberation forces.
“The guy came at me and showed me a license to buy and sell firearms. I trusted him; had no reason to think that he was lying and that’s what happened,” Shabazz said. “And the guy who was trying to help me get the job was calling me every other day for a month and he said he couldn’t hold a job for me and I should call him when I get the permit.”
State Supreme Court Justice Richard McNally, Jr. is expected to sentence Shabazz next month.
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