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Dirty Bomb Suspect Held Illegally: Attorney
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Florida
Imam Rafiq Mahdi, with local law enforcement, who say Padilla
did not convert to Islam while in prison in the state.
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NEW YORK
, June 13 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - A lawyer for a
U.S.
citizen who converted to Islam and now stands accused of plotting to
set off a radiation-laced “dirty bomb” in the
U.S.
petitioned Tuesday, June 11, for his release, saying his continued
detention was illegal and unconstitutional.
However,
U.S. President George W. Bush and other top officials insisted that
the suspect was what they called a “bad guy” who would remain in
military custody as long as necessary.
Attorney
Donna Newman’s habeas corpus petition in U.S. District Court in
New York
challenged the legality of her client's detention without charge as an
enemy combatant.
CNN
reports that while the court would consider Newman’s motion, it was
unclear what jurisdiction, if any, the court has in the case now that
Abdullah Al-Muhajir, 31, is in
U.S.
military custody.
Stating
that the government has denied her access to Al-Muhajir since he was
turned over to the Defense Department, Newman said, “He is being
detained without time limit, or the right to counsel,” two days
after Al-Muhajir, was shifted from
New York
to a
South Carolina
naval prison.
“My
client is a citizen,” she said outside court Tuesday. “He still
has constitutional rights - the right to counsel, the right to be
charged by a grand jury.”
“There
aren’t any formal charges and that is why the defense community is
outraged,” Newman said, pointing out that her client’s case should
be a “constitutional concern for everybody…He was taken and will
now be detained in a military prison.”
Newman
says her client had been under extremely high security at the
Manhattan
Correctional
Center
and that he denies the government’s allegations.
“His
response is the allegations are not true because there are no
allegations. He's not been charged, but he’s being detained,” she
said.
“The
government have used the media to characterize him and make him evil,
but they haven't even pressed charges,” Newman continued.
U.S.
Attorney General John Ashcroft announced the arrest Monday, June 10.
He claimed Al-Muhajir, born Jose Padilla, was tied to Al-Qaeda, a
network blamed by the
U.S.
for the September 11 attacks in the
United States
.
Al-Muhajir
was arrested May 8 in
Chicago
and was moved to
New York
where he was held secretly for a month as a material witness before
being moved to a military prison.
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Donna
Newman, Padilla’s attorney, said he was being detained
illegally
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Civil
rights activists have raised concerns over his legal rights as a
U.S.
citizen since his transfer to military custody.
Officials
said the categorization permits officials more latitude in questioning
Al-Muhajir than if he were under civilian custody.
Speaking
Tuesday in
Budapest
, Ashcroft argued that Al-Muhajir’s arrest had significantly
disrupted the bomb plot and said his continued detention was the right
course of action.
Ashcroft,
currently on a tour of
Russia
,
Hungary
and
Switzerland
, stressed the importance of the so-called fight against terrorism,
saying it demands long-lasting international efforts.
“We
believe that the threat of international terror is substantial and it
remains,” Ashcroft warned.
Bush
has defended the government’s handling of the case and said a
“full-scale manhunt” was on to track down anyone else linked to
the dirty bomb plot. “We will run down every lead, every
hint,” Bush said.
“This
guy, Padilla, is a bad guy. And he is where he needs to be -
detained.”
The
president declined to specifically answer a question about media
reports that the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission had catalogued 107
reports of lost or stolen radiation sources in the
United States
in the six months ending March 31.
U.S.
officials claimed Abu Zubaydah, the most senior Al-Qaeda figure
captured by the
U.S.
, provided the primary information about Al-Muhajir, a source that
Newman finds troubling.
“A
person is being detained on information - the value of which, the
credibility of which and the reliability of which, we don’t know,”
she commented to reporters after a federal court hearing, reports CNN.
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Bush
said Padilla was “a bad guy”
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The
State Department, meanwhile, said it had issued a new passport to
Al-Muhajir two months before he was arrested. Spokesman Richard
Boucher said Al-Mujahir had applied for a replacement passport in
February at the
U.S.
consulate in
Karachi
,
Pakistan
.
“There
was some information developed out there in
Karachi
as a result of this passport application and issuance,” Boucher
alleged, without elaborating.
CNN
reports, however, that officials at the consulate reportedly became
suspicious, wondering why a man with the name of Padilla, a Hispanic
name, was in
Pakistan
. The consulate then asked other agencies to check into him.
Growing
up as a teenager in
Chicago
’s tough
West Side
neighborhood, Jose Padilla ran up a rap sheet as a small-time hoodlum,
with charges ranging from marijuana possession to attempted robbery
and illegal gun ownership.
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