After a more than three-month trial in Miami federal court, closing arguments are expected Monday in the case of former Chicago gang member Jose Padilla and two co-defendants on terrorism-related charges.
Back story
Padilla, 36, a U.S. citizen, was arrested at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport in May 2002 after stepping off a plane from Zurich. He was taken to a jail in the New York area, where, nearly five weeks after his arrest, he was declared an “enemy combatant” by President Bush and moved to a Navy brig in South Carolina. Bush’s move, which put Padilla in military custody, set off a flurry of litigation that would reach the Supreme Court before Padilla, no longer an “enemy combatant,” was indicted by a federal grand jury in 2005.
The charges
Padilla was initially accused in 2002 of plotting to detonate a radioactive “dirty bomb” in a U.S. city. But that charge was not among those he faced in U.S. District Judge Marcia Cooke’s courtroom. U.S. officials say Padilla, while incarcerated in the Navy brig, admitted to exploring the “dirty bomb” plot. But that evidence could not be used at trial because he was interrogated without being advised of his rights and initially had no access to a lawyer. At trial, prosecutors argued that Padilla and co-defendants Adham Amin Hassoun and Kifah Wael Jayyousi formed a U.S.-based support cell for Al Qaeda. Charged with conspiracy to commit terrorism and conspiring to murder, kidnap and maim people abroad, the men face life in prison if convicted on all charges.
The case against
The key piece of physical evidence against Padilla is a “mujahedeen identification form,” allegedly recovered from an Al Qaeda training camp in Afghanistan, which bears his fingerprints and one of his aliases. Other evidence against the alleged cell consists of thousands of intercepted phone calls. Padilla’s voice is allegedly heard on eight of them. Some tapes and intercepted faxes allegedly suggest that Padilla and his co-defendants helped arrange personnel and equipment for people in the conflicts in Chechnya and Bosnia.
The case for
Attorneys for Padilla did not call any defense witnesses on his behalf. They have suggested that Padilla’s fingerprints appeared on the “mujahedeen identification form” because it was handed to him by interrogators during his detention. And lawyers are expected to argue in closing arguments that their clients were merely providing humanitarian relief such as clothing, food and medicine for Muslims being persecuted in struggles with Russians and Serbs.
Detention
Last December, Padilla’s lawyers had asked Judge Cooke to set Padilla free because of the abuse they say he suffered while held inside a one-man isolation cell as an “enemy combatant.” The lawyers had hoped to shut down his case by proving that his imprisonment at the Navy brig for more than three years without being charged had left him incompetent to stand trial. Padilla told his lawyers and mental-health experts that he was held without sunlight, adequate food or a clock and was injected with truth-serum drugs to coerce him to talk. At times, he said, his wrists and torso were chained to the cell floor. Photos of Padilla wearing chains, noise-blocking headphones and blacked-out goggles have been seized on by his lawyers as evidence he was subjected to harsh treatment. Federal prosecutors repeatedly have denied that Padilla was mistreated.
His past
Born in Brooklyn of Puerto Rican heritage, Padilla moved to Chicago at age 5. He was arrested in 1985 as a juvenile on a murder charge and was convicted of lesser charges. He spent three years at the Illinois Youth Center at St. Charles before being released on his 18th birthday in 1988. He later lived in Florida, where his troubles continued. In 1991 he was sentenced to a year in Broward County Jail after firing a shot out of his car window in a road rage incident. Padilla reportedly converted to Islam in Florida, and in 1996 married a Muslim woman. Within about two years, authorities say, he had left his Florida wife and was in Egypt. Prosecutors allege he reached Afghanistan in summer 2000 to attend an Al Qaeda training camp. Authorities say he was in Pakistan in 2001 and early 2002.
It’s Puh-DEE-uh
He’s a man of many names. As a youth he was called “Pucho” by his Logan Square neighbors because of his chubby cheeks. He legally changed his name in 1994 to Ibrahim. At the time of his arrest in 2002 he was known as Abdullah al-Muhajir. Even the pronunciation of Padilla has been inconsistent. After his arrest, his lawyer said it was Puh-DILL-uh, but his current lawyers say it’s Puh-DEE-uh.
— Tribune news services and staff reports
