Koran Abuse in Miami Dirty Bomb Case
Little Green Footballs
Lawyers for two Al Qaeda-linked terror suspects in Miami have asked that the indictment against their clients be dismissed, because a jailer tossed a Koran onto a bunk bed:
Yes, it really has come to this.
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Lawyers for 2 in ‘dirty bomb’ terror case allege misconduct at jail
MIAMI — Attorneys for two terrorism suspects tied to an alleged al-Qaida dirty bomb suspect are asking for the dismissal of a federal indictment against them based on a jailer’s mishandling of a Quran and intimidating jail cell searches that removed handwritten papers in Arabic.
The defense claims the seizures from the cells of Adhan Amin Hassoun and Kifah Wael Jayyousi in May and June amount to government misconduct and an unconstitutional intrusion on trial preparation.
Jailers also disrespectfully tossed Hassoun’s Quran on his bunk and left 8,000 pages of trial papers in disarray, his attorney Kenneth Swartz said in motions filed Friday.
Hassoun, a Lebanese-born Palestinian, and Jayyousi, a Jordanian national and U.S. citizen, face possible life prison sentences on charges of plotting to fund and support Islamic jihad through murder and kidnappings abroad, including Bosnia, Chechnya and Somalia.
“By depriving the defendants of the confidentiality of their own case-related notes, the government has destroyed any possible confidence that their case can be prepared with privacy,” the men’s attorneys wrote.
The defense also is asking for an order to either release the men from solitary confinement or on house arrest. Alicia Valle, spokeswoman for the U.S. attorney’s office, said Monday that prosecutors would respond in writing, but both motions said the federal trial attorney opposed them.
Messages left at the downtown jail where the men are detained by the U.S. Bureau of Prisons were not immediately returned. The defense said the warden responded to a March request by Hassoun for a change in jail conditions by saying he was a “security threat.”
On the Quran, a jail officer took a piece of paper with Arabic writing, but Hassoun explained that he had copied an excerpt from the holy book and showed him the matching text. The officer returned the paper and tossed the Quran on the bed.
“Even the U.S. military has said that’s not the kind of treatment you give a holy book, so I guess FDC hasn’t come to that conclusion,” Swartz said Monday.
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(Hat tip: unclebubba.)
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