Posted on 10/17/2006 6:24:26 AM PDT by presidio9
Lawyers for an American citizen facing execution in Iraq appealed Friday in U.S. federal court to keep the man in American custody — preventing his death — while another case is being appealed.
The citizen, Mohammad Munaf, was convicted and sentenced to death by an Iraqi judge earlier this week on charges he helped in the 2005 kidnapping of three Romanian journalists in Baghdad, court papers show.
Iraqi-born Munaf, a naturalized U.S. citizen since 2000, was working as their translator and guide. He maintains his innocence.
In an emergency request filed Friday in U.S. District Court in Washington, Munaf's attorneys claim his rights to a fair trial in Iraq were violated when he was convicted without being able to present evidence in his defense — or to see the evidence against him.
"This court's failure to temporarily halt Mr. Munaf's transfer to Iraqi custody will not only send Mr. Munaf to his death without due process, it will eviscerate ... core protections against arbitrary and lawless executive action," Munaf's attorneys wrote.
The legal filing asks the court to block the Defense Department, which has been holding Munaf at a prison at the Baghdad International Airport, from turning him over to Iraqi authorities. A Pentagon spokesman did not return a call for comment Friday.
A federal appeals court in Washington already is considering whether the U.S. military can turn over suspected terrorists to the Iraqi government.
The cases of Munaf and Shawqi Omar, who is accused of being a top lieutenant to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, could decide whether the Bush administration has exceeded its authority in trying to keep Americans it has identified as terrorists out of U.S. courts.
The Romanian government has accused Munaf of assisting in the March 2005 kidnapping. He was held with the three journalists for 55 days before they were released, his attorneys said. The Romanian Embassy turned Munaf over to U.S. authorities in Baghdad.
No Romanian officials attended Munaf's trial, according to the papers filed by his attorneys. But two U.S. military officials — including a soldier claiming to represent the Romanian Embassy — demanded that Munaf be found "guilty and should be executed," the papers say.
The Iraqi judge, identified as Judge al-Rubayy, initially appeared ready to drop the charges against Munaf, his lawyers contend. But after meeting privately with the two military officials, al-Rubayy convicted Munaf and sentenced him to death, the lawyers say.
Munaf could be transferred to Iraqi custody at any time, said one of his attorneys, Jonathan Hafetz of the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University's law school.
I'll alert the democrats maybe they can get him the same sort of rights we are willing to give any terrorist.
I'm sure they'll send a crack squad of legal ninjas.
"A federal appeals court in Washington already is considering whether the U.S. military can turn over suspected terrorists to the Iraqi government."
He committed the crime in their country.
He should face their court and pay their price.
YUP! It's a bite in our butts when one of them commits a crime on US soil and is shipped home for punishment. Although, I must say some of those are better justice than facing our liberal justice system!
Interesting
I certainly hope our Marines will have some attorney filing on their behalf on the same grounds.
Well there was. [a massacre] There's no question about it.....When this thing's all over, you're going to see exactly what I've said to be true. That, there was an IED attack, it killed one marine, and then they overreacted and killed a number of civilians without anybody firing at them. That's what you're going to find out.
John P Murtha, May 19, 2006, The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer
"There was no firefight. There was no IED that killed these innocent people. Our troops overreacted because of the pressure on them, and they killed innocent civilians in cold blood,"Murtha said.
Link to article.
Hey, if it's good enough for our Marines, it's good enough for the terrorists.
Prosecutors say journalists' kidnapping in Iraq was coordinated from Romania
Ping to another link to this story for you- which oddly enough relates to a tax evasion and fraud scandal in Romania- in case the Bleedingheartclub gets around to trying to make a big deal out of this Iraqi-American guy's fate.
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