Posted on 05/31/2005 6:42:27 PM PDT by Tumbleweed_Connection
A New York martial arts expert who is charged with conspiring to help train al Qaeda members is the victim of a "desperate prosecution on the government's behalf," his lawyer said on Tuesday.
Tarik Ibn Osman Shah was arrested on Friday in New York after a two-year sting operation in which prosecutors said he had been taped pledging support to Osama bin Laden. He is charged with one count of conspiring to provide material support to al Qaeda, a designated foreign terrorist organization.
Shah, who is also a professional jazz musician, was presented briefly in Manhattan federal court on Tuesday and was held without bail. After the session, his lawyers told reporters they planned to review the tapes.
Anthony Ricco, one of Shah's lawyers, questioned why it would take the government two years to file a complaint if authorities really thought Shah was dangerous.
"If someone is really a threat to our security, it makes me wonder what they are talking about for two years ... That's a very powerful and important fact in this case."
Asked by reporters if this is a case of entrapment and overzealous prosecution, Ricco responded, "It's a sting operation" and said the charges marked a "desperate prosecution on the part of the government."
"He wouldn't be here if he wasn't a Muslim," Ricco said.
A federal complaint against Shah and another defendant, Rafiq Sabir, a doctor, was filed on Friday in Manhattan federal court. Sabir was arrested in Boca Raton, Florida.
If convicted of the one conspiracy charge, each defendant faces a maximum sentence of 15 years in prison and a fine of $250,000.
Ricco said the men were "long-time" friends.
Prosecutors claim that between 2003 and this month, the two men had multiple meetings and conversations with a confidential source and an undercover FBI agent, who was acting as an al Qaeda recruiter.
During the meetings, Shah agreed to provide martial arts and hand-to-hand combat training to al Qaeda members while Sabir agreed to give medical help to wounded jihad fighters in Saudi Arabia, the complaint said. However, there are no claims that either man actually provided support to terrorists.
In a separate case, a Manhattan federal judge refused to throw out a 2001 indictment of a San Diego college student who is charged with lying to a grand jury investigating the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks. U.S. District Judge Shira Scheindlin had considered dismissing the indictment because the student, Osama Awadallah, a Jordanian, had appeared as a witness before the grand jury while bound in shackles.
The same grand jury later indicted Awadallah. His lawyers argued that the jurors might have been influenced to believe he had done something wrong because they had seen the shackles.
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