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| Testimony on bin Laden allowed at sheikh's trial |
| 2005-03-02 |
| Over repeated objections from the defense yesterday, a federal judge at the terror financing trial of a Yemeni sheik permitted a witness to describe his time at a desolate Qaeda training camp in Afghanistan and visits there by Osama bin Laden. It was the spring of 2001, the witness, Yahya Goba, told the engrossed jurors. The trainees sang a welcoming song. Mr. bin Laden held forth "about the importance of unifying and jihad. Technically, the witness had only a bit part in the Brooklyn trial where he made his appearance yesterday, testifying for the prosecutors at the trial of the sheik, Mohammed Ali Hassan al-Moayad, who is charged with providing material support to Al Qaeda and Hamas. But the repeated objections from the sheik's chief lawyer, William H. Goodman, made it evident that the defense saw the discussion of Mr. bin Laden, just as the testimony in the case is about to end, as inflammatory. Prosecutors are expected to call their last witness this morning. "This is irrelevant to the defendant in this case," Mr. Goodman said on several occasions, arguing that the prosecutors were using a thin evidentiary reed to bring the image of Mr. bin Laden into the courtroom. In short order yesterday, the judge, Sterling Johnson Jr., allowed the prosecutors to play to the jurors in Brooklyn federal court a videotape of the very visit by Mr. bin Laden to the training camp that Mr. Goba had described, a place where, he testified, jihad inductees were taught about weapons and explosives. The prosecutors do not claim that the sheik had any ties to the camp other than, they say, sponsoring a trainee. Mr. Goba's appearance was the latest sign of an improvement in the fortunes of the prosecutors. In the weeks before the trial, the judge made several rulings against them that seemed to limit the evidence they could introduce. They also decided to forfeit testimony from their main informer, after he set himself on fire outside the White House. But, in the end, the defense lawyers called the informer, Mohamed Alanssi. And Judge Johnson's decisions not to limit Mr. Goba's testimony were among several permitting the prosecutors to present essentially the case they originally said they wanted to present. Judge Johnson has barred the defense lawyers from giving interviews to reporters, but before that ruling, several said they believed some of his rulings would present extensive grounds for appeal. Mr. Goba was called by prosecutors to explain to the jurors the significance of a training-camp registration form found by American forces in Afghanistan. On the form introduced yesterday, a trainee listed Sheik Moayad as the man who had recommended him. The defense had fought the introduction of the document. But, in a pivotal victory yesterday, prosecutors persuaded Judge Johnson to allow them to introduce not only the registration form, but also two other documents he had barred. Those documents show that two mujahedeen fighters in the Bosnian war in the 1990's carried the sheik's phone number in their address books. The defense has said there is no evidence that Sheik Moayad even knew the training camp inductee or the Bosnian fighters. But the prosecutors returned to the issue, noting that the defense had told jurors that the sheik had no inclination to participate in terrorist activities. The defense claims he was entrapped in hours of secretly videotaped conversations in which he talked about jihad and financing. The prosecutors claimed that the entrapment argument opened the door for them to then present what proof they had about the sheik's prior ties. In his decision yesterday, Judge Johnson offered little explanation, other than saying he agreed with the prosecutors. |
| Posted by:Dan Darling |