Prosecutor, Agent Indicted in Detroit - Misconduct Is Alleged in Terrorism Case

A former federal prosecutor and a State Department security officer were indicted yesterday on charges that they lied during a bungled terrorism trial in Detroit and then sought to cover up their deceptions once the case began to fall apart.

Former assistant U.S. attorney Richard G. Convertino, 45, and State Department special agent Harry R. Smith III, 49, were charged with conspiracy, obstruction of justice and making false statements in connection with the 2003 prosecution, according to an indictment handed up by a federal grand jury in Detroit. ...

Convertino led the prosecution of Karim Koubriti and three other North African immigrants, who were alleged to be part of a "sleeper operational combat cell." The government gained three convictions -- including two on terrorism charges -- but they were dismissed in 2004 after the Justice Department announced it had uncovered serious prosecutorial misconduct.

A report by a special Justice Department attorney assigned to review the case found that the prosecution had failed to turn over dozens of pieces of evidence to the defense. The "pattern of mistakes and oversights," along with possible misconduct, was so egregious that the government had little choice but to withdraw its case, his report said.

September 17, 2001: Associates of al-Marabh Arrested on Conspiracy Charges
Federal agents looking for Nabil al-Marabh fail to find him at an old Detroit address, but they accidentally discover three other possible operatives there. Karim Koubriti, Ahmed Hannan, and Farouk Ali-Haimoud are arrested. They were working as dishwashers at the Detroit airport. Investigators initially believe they were casing the airport for possible security breaches. [Boston Globe, 12/15/2002] An associate of theirs named Abel Ilah Elmardoudi will be arrested in North Carolina in November 2002. [Boston Globe, 12/15/2002] All four men will be put on trial. Initially, the evidence against them appears strong. For instance, a notebook is found that seems to show a plot to assassinate ex-Defense Secretary William Cohen during a visit to Turkey. [Washington Post, 10/20/2001; Associated Press, 12/17/2001] A stash of false documents is also found, and the men have false passports, Social Security cards, and immigration papers. Some of these documents connect them to al-Marabh. [Boston Herald, 10/20/2001; ABC News, 3/3/2002; Boston Globe, 12/15/2002] Al-Marabh had moved out of the Detroit address and the men moved in about two years earlier. [ Local 4 News (Detroit), 10/22/2001] In June 2003, Elmardoudi and Koubriti will be convicted of conspiring to provide material support to terrorists and Hannan will be convicted of document fraud. However, the case against them will later fall apart amidst charges of prosecutorial misconduct. The so-called assassination plot on Cohen, for instance, appears to have been based on random doodles by a mentally unstable friend. All convictions will eventually be overturned and the men will be freed (see June 2003-August 2004).
June 2003-August 2004: Detroit `Sleeper Cell' Members Found Guilty,
Then Convictions Overturned After Discovery of Widespread Prosecutorial Misconduct
Verdicts are announced in a trial of four men who lived in a Detroit apartment on 9/11 that had previously been rented by al-Qaeda operative Nabil al-Marabh (see September 17, 2001). Abdel-Ilah Elmardoudi and Karim Koubriti are convicted of conspiring to provide material support to terrorists and also document fraud. Ahmed Hannan is convicted of document fraud. Farouk Ali-Haimoud is cleared of all charges. Justice Department officials, including Attorney General John Ashcroft, assert the men were in an al-Qaeda sleeper cell and had plans to attack targets in the US and Turkey. The verdicts are hailed as the first successful post-9/11 terrorism prosecution. [Washington Post, 1/31/2004] However, the case soon begins to fall apart. The judge learns the prosecution had withheld evidence in the case, and in December 2003, orders an internal Justice Department inquiry. In August 2004, the inquiry asks the judge to throw out the convictions because of prosecutorial misconduct, which he does. For instance, it is revealed that the only witness in the trial, Youssef Hmimssa, told a fellow prisoner that he had made up all his evidence against the defendants. But the prosecution kept this information, and much more that was potentially damaging to their case, from the jury. The Washington Post later reports that the inquiry concludes "the prosecution stuck doggedly to its theory in defiance of plausible explanations and advice from other US government officials. Records suggest prosecutors withheld evidence that cast doubt on their conclusions, even when ordered by superiors to deliver documents to the defense." By late 2005, it will be reported that a federal grand jury is investigating whether the lead prosecutor, Richard Convertino, or anyone else should be indicted. Convertino meanwhile will sue Ashcroft and other Justice Department superiors, accusing them of mismanaging the case and retaliating against him for testifying critically about the Justice Department before Congress. [Washington Post, 1/31/2004; Associated Press, 9/30/2004; Washington Post, 12/20/2005]
http://www.cooperativeresearch.org/entity.jsp?entity=karim_koubriti
Monday, June 21, 2004
Terrorism attorneys may testify
By David Shepardson / The Detroit News
DETROIT -- FBI agents investigating the former lead prosecutor in the 2003 Detroit terrorism trial have interviewed all of the defense attorneys in the case, telling some they could be government witnesses at a possible trial.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Richard G. Convertino is the subject of a 2 1/2-month-old criminal investigation by the Justice Department's Public Integrity Section stemming from a court-ordered review of all documents in the terror trial.
Convertino won the June 2003 convictions of two North African immigrants on terror charges. The case was hailed by the Bush Administration as an important victory in the war on terrorism. ...
Convertino filed a lawsuit against U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft and U.S. Attorney Jeffrey Collins on Feb. 9, accusing the pair and other government lawyers of "gross mismanagement" of the war on terrorism and illegally leaking the internal investigation and the name of a confidential FBI informant, Marwan Farhat.
Farhat left the country in January, saying he had been pressured by the FBI to break the law and spy on more than 200 Muslims.
Farhat, a convicted drug dealer who won leniency after Convertino spoke at his sentencing, was an FBI informant used by Convertino as a translator in the terror case.
The Detroit terror case -- the first to proceed to trial stemming from the investigation of the September 11 attacks -- stems from the Sept. 17, 2001, raid of a southwest Detroit apartment in which federal agents were searching for a man high on the terror watch list.
Instead they found Karim Koubriti, Ahmed Hannan and Farouk ali-Haimoud, along with expired airport ID badges, phony IDs and a day planner that had drawings the government claimed were "casing diagrams" of potential targets in Jordan and Turkey.
Google Cache of Article
The government's case rested largely on the testimony of Youssef Hmimssa, a forger from Morocco who is in the United States illegally and was sentenced on stolen credit card charges. He testified the defendants scared him. He said they tried to recruit him to help overthrow the government of Algeria, seeking his help in sending weapons and money, and enlisting his skills as a credit card thief and forger.
Hmimssa also said two of the defendants talked about poisoning airline passengers through their jobs at Detroit Metro Airport and Ali-Haimoud talked about joining Osama bin Laden and killing Jews, Christians and wrong-thinking Muslims.
http://www.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2003/6/3/185254.shtml