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U.S.
Prosecutors Refute Lindh Was Mistreated
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| Lindh
after being tortured by U.S. Troups |
WASHINGTON,
March 30 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - The U.S. government
moved Friday to refute charges that "American Taliban"
John Walker Lindh, accused of terrorist conspiracy against the
United States, had been mistreated while in custody of U.S. forces
or illegally denied him access to an attorney after he was captured
with Taliban fighters in Afghanistan.
In
a series of documents filed with the U.S. District Court in
Alexandria, Virginia, U.S. prosecutors said allegations by Lindh's
defense attorneys that U.S. troops had threatened and even tortured
their client had no basis in fact.
"From
the first moment that special forces personnel became aware that
there was a prisoner at the Sherberghan hospital facility who might
be an American ... they provided him the very same medical treatment
provided to wounded United States military personnel," said
Assistant U.S. District Attorney Randy Bellows.
A
son of a well-to-do California family, Lindh converted to Islam at
age of 16 and moved first to Yemen and then to Pakistan for
Qur’anic studies.
He
told U.S. investigators he had traveled to Afghanistan in May 2001
and was trained in a camp run by Al-Qaeda, the group led by
Saudi-born Osama bin Laden, blamed for the September 11 attacks on
the United States.
Lindh
was captured by U.S.-backed Northern Alliance forces in November and
handed over to U.S. troops after a bloody prison uprising at
Qala-Jangi fortress, in which Lindh was wounded in the leg.
Brought
back to the United States in January, he has been charged with 10
counts of conspiracy to murder U.S. citizens and providing support
to foreign terrorist organizations.
If
convicted, the 21-year-old man could spend the rest of his life in
jail. His trial is scheduled to begin on August 26.
However,
the bulk of the government's case against Lindh is based on
information he volunteered to the Federal Bureau of Investigation
(FBI) in Afghanistan and aboard U.S. ships in the Arabian Sea, and
defense attorneys are now questioning whether the government
properly obtained the statements.
The
Washington Post reports that much of the case against Lindh rests on
the three interviews Lindh gave to the FBI in Afghanistan without a
lawyer present. "The bulk of the evidence in this case comes
from Lindh's own admissions," the prosecutors wrote.
And
the defense has alleged that prior to his FBI interrogations, Lindh
was held naked in an unheated metal shipping container, was
blindfolded, shackled and prevented from sleeping.
News
agencies report that Lindh’s attorneys argued that incriminating
statements Lindh made to interrogators should be thrown out, in part
because he was interviewed without an attorney present after being
confined in a freezing metal container, bound with
circulation-cutting handcuffs and blindfolded.
Prosecutors
fired back by arguing that all allegations that a confession had
been obtained from Lindh under duress were "at odds with the
actual facts."
"Were
the facilities at Camp Rhino ideal? Of course not," said
Bellows, referring to a U.S. military base outside the Afghan city
of Kandahar, where Lindh was held for some time.
"But
the United States Marine Corps had not plucked John Walker Lindh out
of the California suburb, where he used to live and dropped him into
a metal container in the middle of Afghanistan," he stated.
Bellows
said that while Lindh indeed had been kept at Camp Rhino in a
container, he had been given two comforters for warmth, plenty of
water, food and medicine.
"While
the Navy physician who was treating him had to sleep on a concrete
floor in a sleeping bag in a room with a hole in the wall and a hole
in the ceiling, Lindh slept on a stretcher in a container that
protected him from the elements," the prosecutor said.
Prosecutors
asserted that Lindh was properly treated as a "potentially
dangerous detainee," reports the Post.
After
his transfer in December, to the amphibious assault ship USS
Peleliu, Lindh and other detainees were given Qur’ans, regular
meals and unlimited water, according to prosecutors.
However,
the Post reports that prosecutors have urged the court to reject
defense demands for access to government evidence in the case. The
defense team has asked for FBI notes, detailed information about
U.S. troop movements in Afghanistan, the identities of CIA and other
confidential witnesses and e-mails among Justice Department
officials about Lindh after the Californian was captured in northern
Afghanistan.
The
U.S. judicial system requires that both the prosecution and defense
have the same access to evidentiary materials in order that a fair
trial is conducted.
Lindh’s
motions will be heard in court Monday.
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