U.S. Court Dismisses Landmark Terror Convictions

Thu Sep 2, 2004 05:47 PM ET

DETROIT (Reuters) - A U.S. court on Thursday dismissed the convictions of two Arab men, the first to be prosecuted and tried on terror-related charges following the Sept. 11 attacks, after the government conceded errors in handling the case.

A U.S. District Court Judge in Michigan granted the wish of the U.S. Justice Department, which said in a filing this week that prosecutors "committed a pattern of mistakes and oversights" that hindered the defendants from reviewing evidence used against them.

"The prosecution's understandable sense of mission and its zeal to obtain a conviction overcame not only its professional judgment, but its broader obligations to the justice system and the rule of law," Judge Gerald Rosen of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan wrote in a ruling.

Prosecutors accused four original defendants of belonging to a "sleeper operational combat cell" conspiring to launch attacks in the United States, Jordan and Turkey.

The alleged ringleader, Abdel-Ilah Elmardoudi, and Karim Koubriti were convicted in June 2003 on charges of conspiracy to provide material support for terrorism and document fraud. A third, Ahmed Hannan, also a Moroccan, was convicted of document fraud. The fourth defendant was acquitted. They were caught in a roundup of hundreds of Arab immigrants following the Sept. 11 attacks on New York and Washington,

Although it dismissed the terror-related charges, the U.S. court also ordered a new trial on the lesser document fraud convictions for the three men.

"We're pleased, but disappointed," said William Swor, an attorney representing Elmardoudi. "The (government) misconduct warrants the ultimate sanction of dismissal" of the document fraud charge, he said.

U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft last year heralded the Detroit convictions as a clear message that the United States would work diligently to disrupt and dismantle terrorist "sleeper cells" at home and abroad.

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