Brahin Ahmaddiya, 57, Philadelphia journailist

[T.E. Goodell]

BOOTHWYN, Pa. (AP) - Brahin Ahmaddiya, a former Philadelphia broadcast
journalist who was awaiting sentencing on drug charges, died Sunday of a heart
attack. He was 57.

Ahmaddiya was scheduled to be sentenced June 22.

The tall, thin, bearded reporter was a familiar figure on KYW-TV through much
of the 1980s. Ahmaddiya also was a longtime staffer for WDAS-AM and -FM and a
former president of the Philadelphia Association of Black Journalists.

In April, Common Pleas Court Judge Ricardo C. Jackson convicted Ahmaddiya of
possession with intent to deliver cocaine. Police had found the drug in a South
Philadelphia barroom he co-owned three years earlier. He faced up to four years
in prison.

Ahmaddiya testified at his trial that he did not know cocaine was being sold at
the Night Dreamers Bar. He said that he was in a rear office when police raided
the barroom on March 7, 1997, and that he did not know that business partner
co-owner Tyrone Davis had been selling cocaine there. Davis pleaded guilty and
is in prison.

KYW-TV fired Ahmaddiya in 1990, citing poor performance and absenteeism.
Ahmaddiya, then 47, disputed the accusations and said he was a victim of age
discrimination.

In 1991, he and three others fired by KYW filed a federal lawsuit alleging that
they were fired to make room for younger, cheaper employees. A federal judge
dismissed the suit in 1992.