Biography
Hafiz Muhammad Sher Ali Khan was a Pakistan-born U.S. citizen and imam at Miami Masjid, also known as the Flagler Mosque. Federal agents arrested him in South Florida on May 14, 2011. After a two-month trial, a jury convicted him on March 4, 2013 of four counts involving conspiracy and material support for the Pakistani Taliban. The evidence concerned money sent to contacts and sympathizers in Pakistan. Khan maintained that the transfers supported relatives, friends, and a religious school he founded. On August 23, 2013, Judge Robert Scola sentenced him to 25 years in federal prison. A federal judge granted compassionate release on October 11, 2019 because of his advanced illnesses, and he was released to hospice care.
The May 12, 2011 indictment identifies him as a United States citizen and imam at Miami’s Flagler Mosque since 1999. It names him in four material-support and conspiracy counts, while the later arrest, conviction and compassionate-release chronology is documented separately. Indictment allegations are not treated as independently proved facts. Source: https://www.justice.gov/archive/usao/fls/PressReleases/Attachments/110514-01.Indictment.pdf#page=1
Birth-year evidence
The Justice Department release dated March 4, 2013 reports age 77. This supports birth in 1935 or 1936; c. 1936 is an age-derived estimate, not an exact birthday. The age is anchored to this dated report, not automatically to an earlier incident or to the present.
Birth-year evidence
Further source review refines the earlier c. 1936 estimate to approximately 1935. The May 14, 2011 Justice Department announcement gives age 76, allowing 1934 or 1935; the March 4, 2013 announcement gives age 77, allowing 1935 or 1936. Their year ranges intersect at 1935. However, later 2013 reports disagree on whether he was 77 or 78, potentially reflecting a stale age. Birth is recorded approximately, not as a verified exact birthday; broader reported-age possibilities are 1934, 1935, or 1936. No month or day is established.
On July 23, 2015, the Eleventh Circuit affirmed Khan’s convictions, rejecting his translation, informant-testimony and overseas-deposition challenges.
