|
Lindh
Was Not Informed Of His Rights: Attorney
 |
|
Attorneys
say Lindh’s confessions were made under torture pressure
|
ALEXANDRIA,
June 15 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Defense attorneys for John
Walker Lindh, in a motion to suppress evidence, stated that U.S.
authorities in Afghanistan failed to advise him of his legal rights
and ignored his pleas for a lawyer, and urged a judge Friday to
suppress statements the defendant made while held in Afghanistan.
The
motion filing comes ahead of a Monday hearing for Lindh in U.S.
District Court, where his lawyers will seek to have the entire case
thrown out, reports CNN.
In
an attempt to bar the use of statements made while interrogated in
Afghanistan in court, defense attorneys said Walker Lindh was
"repeatedly interrogated without any attempt to advise him of his
Fifth Amendment rights," contending that "any statements
elicited without Miranda warnings cannot be used against Mr. Lindh in
this criminal proceeding."
Miranda
warnings are the explicit reading of rights to anyone charged and
arrested for a crime which states that they have a right to an
attorney during questioning, that if he cannot afford an attorney one
will provided for him, the right to remain silent, and that any
statements they make to law enforcement authorities may be used
against them in a court of law. The Miranda warnings are there to
advise the arrested of their rights and that they can choose to say
nothing.
Lindh’s
attorneys assert he was never read these rights last December when he
was captured and interrogated, and that he repeatedly asked for an
attorney, but that interrogators said there was none available. He was
also not informed that his parents retained counsel for him in the
United States.
"The
law is clear that any statements elicited without Miranda warnings
cannot be used against Mr. Lindh in this criminal proceeding,"
the motion said.
The
U.S. government acknowledges that Lindh's statements were heavily
relied upon in his indictment, which charged him with conspiring to
murder Americans and aiding the Taliban and al-Qaeda, reports news
agencies.
The
government’s complaint states that Lindh told the Federal Bureau of
Investigation (FBI) that he personally met Osama bin Laden and was
aware in June that al-Qaeda was sending people to the U.S. to carry
out attacks.
The
unique legal issue arising from the defense’s motion is of whether a
U.S. citizen is entitled to rights like Miranda when he is captured as
a soldier fighting against the U.S., and not brought to the U.S.
criminal system at that moment.
Defense
attorneys assert that Lindh’s signed waiver of his rights when
questioned by an FBI agent in Afghanistan were made under periods and
conditions of duress. During those days in December, Lindh was while
blindfolded, shackled and bound to a stretcher after spending two days
in a metal shipping container with neither heat nor light, the motion
said.
"He
was sleep-deprived, malnourished, hungry and in pain, with a bullet
and shrapnel still lodged in his body," the motion said.
"Mr. Lindh reasonably perceived that only by signing the form
could he hope for relief from the oppressive conditions of
captivity."
As
a result, Lindh emerged "completely intimidated, broken mentally
and physically," his lawyers contend.
|
