Reuters : Testimony ends in Padilla's terrorism trial

Testimony ends in Padilla's terrorism trial

By Jane Sutton | August 7, 2007

MIAMI (Reuters) - Testimony ended on Tuesday in the trial of former "dirty bomb" suspect Jose Padilla and two other men on charges of supporting terrorism, but Padilla's lawyers did not call a single witness.

Padilla, a U.S. citizen, was held for 3-1/2 years in a U.S. military jail as an "enemy combatant" before being transferred into the criminal justice system.

Although he is the star defendant in the case seen as a test of the Bush administration avowed war against terrorism, the evidence has focused largely on two co-defendants during 53 days of trial.

Neither Padilla nor the other defendants, Adham Hassoun and Kifah Jayyousi, testified in the case, which is expected to go to the jury next week.

Hassoun's lawyers rested their case last week and Jayyousi's did so on Tuesday. Padilla's lawyers were given a final chance to call witnesses but declined.

"Your honor, on behalf of Mr. Padilla, we rest," defense attorney Michael Caruso told the judge.

Prosecutors also rested their case on Tuesday and closing arguments were expected next week, after the judge and lawyers determine what instructions jurors will receive.

All three defendants face life in prison if convicted on charges that they provided material support for Islamist terrorist groups overseas and conspired to murder, kidnap and maim people in Afghanistan, Chechnya, Bosnia and other countries from 1993 to 2001.

The government's evidence focused on secretly recorded telephone conversations, mostly involving Hassoun and Jayyousi. Most were in Arabic and prosecution witnesses said they contained coded references to jihadist activity.

Padilla is heard on only seven calls played for the jury. He did not use any coded language on the calls, the FBI's lead investigator testified, and mostly discussed issues such as the sale of a car he had left in Florida and divorce proceedings with his ex-wife.

The government's chief evidence against Padilla is a form he purportedly filled out under an alias in 2000 to attend an al Qaeda training camp in Afghanistan. Padilla's fingerprints were on the outside pages but the government did not present any evidence actually placing him in Afghanistan.

Padilla, 36, was arrested at Chicago's O'Hare Airport in May 2002 upon returning from Egypt and was accused by the Bush administration of plotting to set off a radioactive bomb.

President George W. Bush declared him an "enemy combatant" in the war against terrorism and ordered him imprisoned by the military. Padilla was held without charge for three years and eight months before being indicted in a civilian court in November 2005 on charges that make no mention of a bomb plot.

CHARITY GROUP?

The bomb allegations came from alleged al Qaeda operatives who claim they were tortured before being sent to the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba.

Anything Padilla might have told interrogators in the military brig about such a plot would be inadmissible in court since he was denied access to an attorney for most of the time he was there.

Padilla's lawyers have also alleged he was tortured while held at the brig, a claim that federal prosecutors have denied.

Prosecutors charged that Hassoun, a Lebanese-born Palestinian who attended the same south Florida mosque as Padilla, recruited him to go abroad for training with al Qaeda. Witnesses testifying for the other defendants said Padilla went to Egypt to learn Arabic and study to become a clergyman.

Jayyousi, a naturalized U.S. citizen from Jordan, was a former leader of the group American Worldwide Relief. Prosecutors contend he used it as a front to provide money and supplies to terrorists overseas.

A New Jersey warehouse owner testified for the defense that it was a legitimate charity that stored tens of thousands of pounds of donated clothing, canned food and medicine in his facility before shipping it to Muslims in war-torn Chechnya in the mid-1990s.

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