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| By: Associated Press |
| Published: January 30, 2006 |
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A federal judge plans to decide this week whether she will allow Israeli intelligence agents to take the witness stand in a Chicago courtroom and testify using aliases and wearing disguises.
The case involves Palestinian activist Muhammad Salah, who is accused of illegally laundering funds for Hamas. The militant group, which won a landslide victory last week in Palestinian elections, is branded a terrorist organization by the U.S. government.
Salah is charged along with Mousa Mohammed Abu Marzook and Abdelhaleem Hasan Abdelraziq Ashqar of Alexandria, Virginia, of taking part in a 15-year racketeering conspiracy to provide money and weapons to Hamas. They are accused of using bank accounts in several states to launder money used for murder, kidnappings, assaults and passport fraud.
Salah and Ashqar have pleaded not guilty. Marzook, identified by federal officials as a top official of the Hamas political bureau, is believed to be living in Syria.
Federal prosecutors want to use as evidence against Salah a confession that Israeli agents obtained from Salah in 1993 after he was arrested there. A hearing on whether to allow the confession is set for March 6, and prosecutors want the Israeli agents to testify, but they say extraordinary security measures are necessary for that to happen.
Salah, however, claims he confessed only after being tortured. If that is true, the confession most likely would not stand up in a U.S. court.
The agents' testimony could help clear up the question. But prosecutors say "light disguises" and a courtroom closed to the public and press are needed to protect the agents from possible reprisals by terrorists.
Salah's attorneys argue that their client has a constitutional right to confront his accusers.
An authority on criminal procedures who is not involved in the case, Northwestern University law professor Ronald J. Allen, said the situation is highly unusual.
The confrontation clause of the Sixth Amendment, which guarantees defendants the right to confront their accusers, could well come into play if witnesses are in disguise and testifying under aliases.
"You have the right to probe the veracity of a witness, but that is virtually impossible to do if you don't know who they are or what their background is," Allen said.
U.S. District Judge Amy St. Eve did not set a specific date for her ruling but told lawyers on both sides she would decide quickly.
A spokesman for the U.S. attorney's office, Randall Samborn, declined to comment.
Salah's attorneys say the right to close the courtroom for security reasons should be balanced against their client's rights.
"Our Supreme Court has made clear that under the American system of government, open criminal proceedings are deemed to encourage witness testimony and witness truthfulness," attorneys Michael E. Deutsch and Erica Thompson said in a brief filed with the court.
Testimony under alias has been allowed in U.S. District Court in Chicago. Two years ago, a witness described as a top Iraqi intelligence officer testified under alias at the trial of Khaled Abdel-Latif Dumeisi, who was convicted of using his cover as the publisher of a small suburban newspaper to spy on opponents of Saddam Hussein's regime.
The witness testified under a bogus name and even his job title wasn't made public for fear he would suffer reprisals after returning home. |
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