Posted on 07/03/2003 9:44:33 AM PDT by buccaneer81
Psychiatric evaluation could affect terror case
Thursday, July 03, 2003
Kevin Mayhood
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH
A Columbus truck driver who has admitted to helping the al-Qaida terrorist network has undergone a mental evaluation that could ultimately affect his guilty plea.
When Iyman Faris, 33, pleaded guilty to two charges in May, he told a U.S. District judge in Alexandria, Va., that he was on some medication for high blood pressure.
When the judge asked if he was receiving any treatment for mental illness, Faris said no.
"Then someone from probation sits down and does some background," J. Frederick Sinclair, Faris’ attorney, told The Dispatch yesterday. "He says that after or during the breakup of his marriage, he was hospitalized" for mental illness.
Sinclair said that, at his request, Faris has now been evaluated by a psychiatrist at the Alexandria jail.
"I’m waiting to see what the report is . . . and if this had an impact on his decision," Sinclair said yesterday from Virginia.
Faris pleaded guilty to supporting a terrorist network and conspiracy to provide support.
He told authorities he’d met with Osama bin Laden and other al-Qaida leaders in Pakistan and Afghanistan and had investigated obtaining torches to cut the cables of the Brooklyn Bridge and equipment to derail a train. Sinclair said that when Faris was jailed after he pleaded guilty, he noticed his client suffered mood swings.
The attorney at first attributed them to Faris’ being behind bars — until Faris revealed his stay at a mental hospital.
Now, "when I do meet with him, sometimes his thought processes shift," he said.
Faris’ ex-wife, Geneva Bowling, has told The Dispatch that Faris attempted suicide in the late 1990s and was treated at Harding Hospital.
She also said that he would black out and remember nothing and once told her of talking to "a half-man, who looked just like him, and talked to him."
She and Faris’ friends and former co-workers at a Columbus gas station question how Faris could have pleaded guilty, given his history of mental illness.
Sinclair said Faris’ mental state when he was helping al-Qaida and when he appeared in front of a federal judge could have bearing on the case. He said yesterday that when he was appointed to represent Faris in early April, his client "was in a state of quasi-detention, facing options — none of which were very good."
At the plea hearing May 1, Sinclair told District Judge Leonie M. Brinkema of Faris: "He’s been through a lot of debriefings at Quantico (FBI headquarters in Virginia), which I’m not privy to."
Sinclair said his client told him, though not in full detail, what was discussed. The attorney said he checked the information with the prosecutor.
Faris’ guilty pleas were based on a statement of facts read in court that day.
"Almost everything in this statement of facts came out of his own mouth," Sinclair told the judge.
Court records show Brinkema questioned Faris about his actions with al-Qaida.
"Were you acting fully aware of what you were doing at all times? Were you ever under the influence of drugs or alcohol when you engaged in any of these activities?"
Faris responded: "At this moment, I don’t want to say anything regarding to that."
"Well, were you under . . . " she began. "Did you know what you were doing when you were doing it?"
"Yes, yes," he answered.
Before the Aug. 1 sentencing, Sinclair may file a motion with Brinkema to order that Faris be given a more in-depth psychiatric evaluation.
If granted, the outcome of the evaluation could affect how Faris is sentenced — and where he serves his time.
Faris faces up to 20 years in prison and a lifetime of supervision after he is released.
That's so crazy it frightens me! :-)
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