Padilla indictment avoids high court showdown

Padilla could face life in prison if convicted of being part of a conspiracy to murder, maim and kidnap overseas. The other two charges, providing material support to terrorists and conspiracy, carry maximum prison terms of 15 years each.

Padilla was arrested at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport in 2002 after returning from Pakistan. Then-Attorney General John Ashcroft alleged the former Chicago gang member planned an attack with a “dirty bomb.”

Inadmissible in court
Last year, then-Deputy Attorney General James Comey held a news conference to lay out claims Padilla had sought to blow up hotels and apartment buildings in the United States. Comey acknowledged the information, which he said came from Padilla and others during interrogation, would not be admissible in court because defense lawyers had not been present during the questioning.

The indictment does not say Padilla belonged to al-Qaida. Instead, it asserts he was recruited into a terrorist support cell that was raising money and recruiting operatives beginning in 1993 to fight for radical Islamic causes in Bosnia, Kosovo, Chechnya, Somalia and elsewhere. The indictment also mentions Afghanistan and Egypt, but makes no allegations of specific attacks anywhere.

The defendants are identified as followers and supporters of blind sheik Omar Abdel Rahman, who is serving a life prison sentence for conspiring to blow up New York landmarks and assassinate Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.

The indictment also links the men to Mohamed Zaky, who prosecutors say created three Islamic organizations — the Islamic Center of the Americas, Save Bosnia Now and the American Worldwide Relief Organization — to “promote violent jihad.” Zaky was killed in fighting against Russian troops in Chechnya in 1995.

According to the indictment, Padilla traveled overseas to receive training and to fight violent jihad from October 1993 to November 2001. On July 24, 2000, Padilla is alleged to have filled out a “Mujahedeen Data Form” in preparation for violent jihad training in Afghanistan and reportedly was seen in that country in October 2000.

Others indicted
The others indicted are: Adham Amin Hassoun a Lebanese-born Palestinian who lived in Broward County, Fla.; Mohammed Hesham Youssef, an Egyptian who lived in Broward County; Kifah Wael Jayyousi, a Jordanian and U.S. citizen who lived in San Diego, and Kassem Daher, a Lebanese citizen with Canadian residency status.

Hassoun also was indicted on eight additional charges, including perjury, obstruction of justice and illegal firearm possession.

Hassoun, a Palestinian computer programmer who moved to Florida in 1989, was arrested in June 2002, accused of overstaying his student visa.

Hassoun and Jayyousi are in federal custody in Miami, while Youssef is serving a prison sentence in Egypt, Justice Department officials said. Daher is believed to be in Lebanon, but officials said they are uncertain whether he is in custody.

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