Feds Refuse to Produce al-Qaida Witness: The Justice Department acknowledges its defiance of a judge's order may cause dismissal of charges against accused Sept. 11 conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui, but says it won't produce an al-Qaida prisoner for questioning by the defendant. The government notified the trial judge Monday that it wouldn't budge in its refusal to let Moussaoui, an acknowledged al-Qaida loyalist, interview a former superior - suspected Sept. 11 attack coordinator Ramzi Binalshibh. U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema can now penalize the government, but the ultimate sanction of dismissal is not her only option for disobedience of her order to allow the deposition.
If the case is dismissed, one wonders how long it will be before the government moves this into a military tribunal. That said, both the government and the court have reasons for not wanting the case moved into the tribunals. The government needs a public show trial, one that shows the people that they're not acting in an arbitrary manner when they put cases into the tribunals. (Of course, they are acting arbitrarily, but that's beside the point.) The court would like to show that it can conduct such trials to prevent the government from convening even more tribunals. The court may simply wind up directing jurors that the witness was prevented from appearing by the government's recalcitrance, and that he can be presumed to have offered exculpatory evidence.
The government's case was not the strongest in the first place. One does wonder what they'll do if the civilian system actually produces an exoneration (although a hung jury is far more likely, and a conviction even more so). Would it constitute double jeopardy to put someone into the military tribunal system under the same charges?
Posted by iain at July 16, 2003 10:18 AMComments
