Explosive ruling expected in Padilla case
Ruling in case of terror suspect may be explosive
Sunday, December 17, 2006
RICHARD A. SERRANO Los Angeles Times
WASHINGTON - A federal judge in Miami will soon make one of the most important rulings in the Bush administration's war on terrorism and decide whether to publicly explore evidence that an accused terrorist was brutally mistreated for years inside a one-man isolation cell.
The allegations involve Jose Padilla, a U.S. citizen once portrayed as one of the most dangerous al-Qaida operatives ever arrested. Padilla's lawyers have asked U.S. District Judge Marcia Cooke to set him free because of the abuse they say he suffered.
Though federal judges rarely dismiss criminal charges before trial, the allegations are so extreme that they may prompt Cooke to hold a pretrial hearing in what would be the first public court examination into how detainees were handled after the Sept. 11 attacks.
Padilla's lawyers also hope to shut down his case by proving that his incarceration as an "enemy combatant" at a Navy brig for more than three years without charges has left him incompetent to stand trial.
Any hearing before the trial, scheduled for next month, could prove explosive, as defense lawyers are leaning toward putting Padilla on the witness stand. That too would be a first - a Sept. 11-era detainee testifying about his treatment.
He has told his lawyers and mental-health experts that he was held without sunlight, adequate food or a clock, and was injected with truth-serum drugs to coerce him to talk. At times, he said, his wrists and torso were chained to the cell floor.
Further heightening the drama is a defense request to question military officials about conditions at the brig. Some officials have expressed concerns in written reports that Padilla and two other enemy combatants held in the brig outside Charleston, S.C., were abused.
Federal prosecutors repeatedly have denied that Padilla was mistreated. "Padilla's allegations of torture have no merit whatsoever," prosecutors said in court filings.
Lesser charges:
Padilla was arrested in 2002 on suspicion of trying to detonate a radioactive "dirty bomb" in the United States. The Department of Justice, led by then-Attorney General John Ashcroft, castigated Padilla as a major terrorist menace but eventually scaled back its assessment and filed lesser charges of conspiracy.
Prosecutors say they can prove he was part of a "North American terror support cell" that sent money and supplies to terrorists in Bosnia and Chechnya. The government is urging the judge to deny Padilla's dismissal request without airing the claims in a court hearing.
The judge, appointed to the bench by President Bush, has scheduled a meeting Monday with both sides, and could rule then on the torture and competency questions.
Should she grant a hearing into the allegations, that would mark a major victory for defense lawyers and human rights activists who have said the administration routinely violated the constitutional rights of detainees arrested after the 2001 terrorist attacks in New York and Washington.
Padilla, 36, was born in Brooklyn, raised in Chicago and, after embracing Islam in south Florida, moved to Egypt where he allegedly became involved with terrorist groups.
He was taken into custody in May 2002 at the airport in Chicago after stepping off a plane from Zurich, Switzerland. Law enforcement officials said his arrest broke up a plot in which Padilla was sent back to attack targets in the United States.
In June 2002, Bush designated him an "enemy combatant" and the military tucked him away in the Navy brig.
"When in doubt, empty the clip."
