Detroit --A Saudi Arabian traveler who was arrested Saturday at Detroit Metropolitan Airport with a pressure cooker in his luggage is not a terrorist, his defense lawyer said Tuesday."He is a poor, unfortunate young guy caught up in a situation in which he was innocently carrying a pressure cooker," attorney James Howarth told reporters in federal court.
Al Khawahir's arrest and the contents of his luggage drew international attention Monday when prosecutors charged him with using an altered passport and lying to a U.S. Customs and Border Protection officer about the pressure cooker. A similar cooker was a key component used in the Boston Marathon bombing last month.
Howarth faulted overzealous agents for arresting his 33-year-old client, a married father of three.
"He is not a terrorist," Howarth said. "That's crazy."
Al Khawahir wore a green Wayne County Jail uniform and ankle chains during his brief court hearing. He spoke through an Arabic interpreter, telling U.S. Magistrate Judge Mark Randon that he attended 12 years of school.
Al Khawahir arrived at the airport Saturday from Saudi Arabia, via Amsterdam, according to a criminal complaint filed Monday in federal court.
He was traveling with a B1/B2 visa, which lets him travel to the U.S. temporarily for business or tourism. He told agents he was visiting his nephew, who attends the University of Toledo.
"He is a poor man with a 12th-grade education visiting his nephew."
So poor that he had to fly here from Saudi Arabia in steerage and cook his own halal meals far below decks every day.
During the baggage exam, officers found a pressure cooker.
Al Khawahir said he brought the pressure cooker for his nephew because the devices are not sold in the United States, according to the complaint.
"I don't believe he ever said that," Howarth said Tuesday. "If he did, then we must charge him with being a fool."
Works for me. And can we extend that charge to government officials?
Al Khawahir does not speak English and Howarth believes the government misunderstood his client.
"It's a discrepancy," Howarth said. "It's garbage."
Later, he changed his story and admitted that his nephew had purchased a pressure cooker in the U.S. but it was cheap and broken.
His nephew says the case is a misunderstanding, and that his uncle was bringing him the pressure cooker so he could make lamb.
Al Khawahir has traveled previously with a pressure cooker and was unaware the devices were used in the Boston Marathon attack.
"He doesn't read the Boston Globe," Howarth said.
Since being hired by an unnamed New York City law firm Monday, Howarth said he has heard from other Saudis who said it is common to travel with a pressure cooker. They don't want to use someone else's cooking equipment, Howarth said.
Not even the cooking equipment of the relatives they visit!
The man's nephew told the Associated Press on Monday that he'd asked his uncle to bring him the cooker.
Apparently the nephew in Toledo doesn't read the Boston Globe nor any other infidel media source. Or maybe the nephew is a fool in a family of fools.