Posted on 06/26/2019 3:14:47 PM PDT by robowombat
Virginia: jailed “rock star” jihadist may be released early over “vague” crime law JUN 26, 2019 3:43 PM BY CHRISTINE DOUGLASS-WILLIAMS
U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema has given prosecutors a month to explain “why she shouldn’t overturn three of the 10 counts” on which Islamic scholar Ali Al-Timimi of Fairfax was convicted at his 2005 trial. “The review in the case….comes after the Supreme Court….struck down part of a federal law regulating crimes of violence as unconstitutionally vague.” So now Judge Brinkema may toss out parts Al-Timimi’s conviction, allowing him an early release.
Justice Brett Kavanaugh warned about the many inmates that could be released, stating that they “are offenders who committed violent crimes with firearms, often brutally violent crime.”
Despite the regrettable possibility of violent offenders being released early on the technicalities of a “vague” law, there is an added problem concerning Al-Timimi (and jihadists like him). He will continue his jihad indoctrination and war against infidels upon release. He has already “enjoyed rock-star status among his small group of followers”.
“At a private gathering a few days after the Sept. 11 attacks, Al-Timimi told his followers that an apocalyptic battle between Muslims and the West loomed, and that Muslims were obliged to defend the Taliban if they had the ability to do so, according to trial testimony.”
The Ali Al-Timimi case serves as a reminder of why jihadists are not merely violent offenders — or counselling others to commit a violent offence. They are enemy combatants of war against the United States and other Western states and should be treated and processed as such.
“Islamic scholar’s terror convictions reviewed in Virginia”, by Matthew Barakat, Associated Press, June 25, 2019:
FALLS CHURCH, Va. (AP) — A judge is considering tossing out parts of a 10-count conviction against an Islamic scholar serving life in prison for persuading some of his followers to travel overseas after the Sept. 11 attacks and try to join the Taliban.
The review in the case of Ali Al-Timimi of Fairfax comes after the Supreme Court on Monday struck down part of a federal law regulating crimes of violence as unconstitutionally vague.
U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema issued a show cause order Tuesday giving prosecutors 30 days to explain why she shouldn’t overturn three of the 10 counts on which Al-Timimi was convicted at his 2005 trial.
Vacating those convictions would likely still leave a significant sentence on remaining counts, which include soliciting treason. But the life sentence would be unlikely to survive.
Al-Timimi was indicted in 2004, and prosecutors said the U.S.-born scholar — who had earned his doctorate in computational biology shortly before his arrest — enjoyed rock-star status among his small group of followers.
At a private gathering a few days after the Sept. 11 attacks, Al-Timimi told his followers that an apocalyptic battle between Muslims and the West loomed, and that Muslims were obliged to defend the Taliban if they had the ability to do so, according to trial testimony.
Several members did travel as far as Pakistan and received military training from a militant group called Lashkar-e-Taiba, but none ever actually joined the Taliban.
In the years leading up to Sept. 11, many members of the group had trained for potential holy war by playing paintball in the northern Virginia woods.
Roughly a dozen men were convicted and sentenced for their various roles in the paintball-jihad conspiracy. Several of those who were convicted received sentences of 25 years or more under the same “crime of violence” convictions implicated in Al-Timimi’s case.
But the “crime of violence” statute has been under constitutional assault for several years, and several members of the paintball conspiracy have already been released from jail early as a result of previous court rulings.
The Supreme Court’s 5-4 ruling Monday in U.S. v. Davis, though, directly affects Al-Timimi’s case, according to his lawyer, Jonathan Turley.
The high court “has unequivocally invalidated the … clause that formed the basis for Al-Timimi’s convictions under Counts 1, 7, and 8,” Turley wrote in a brief Monday urging the court to take action.
Justice Brett Kavanaugh, dissenting in the high court case, warned that the decision will likely result in thousands of inmates being released from prison earlier than their original sentence.
“The inmates who will be released early are not nonviolent offenders,” he wrote. “They are not drug offenders. They are offenders who committed violent crimes with firearms, often brutally violent crime.”
He should be locked up permanently, maybe sent to Gitmo, but not released.
Justice Kavanaugh is right, under this same logic many other dangerous terrorists could be released, a very dangerous thing.
Exactly. There should have been many hangings.
However, you must consider that a vague law - applied to actual citizens - is still anathema to American citizens.
Another Brinkema case... several Virginia state employees challenged the constitutionality of a state statute barring state employees from using their computers at work to view porn.
Judge Brinkema agreed, and held the statute unconstitutional. Virginia appealed, and Judge Brinkema was reversed by a unanimous Opinion of a three judge Court of Appeals panel.
Exactly what Justice Gorsuch wrote in his opinion for the majority.
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