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Posted on 06/17/2004 11:51:40 AM PDT by Eagle of Liberty
Dayton Daily News
COLUMBUS | A federal magistrate Wednesday ordered terror suspect Nuradin Abdi of Columbus to undergo psychiatric evaluation and treatment to see if he is competent to stand trial.
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Abdi's attorney Mahir Sherif, a San Diego-based immigration and criminal defense lawyer, asked for the evaluation because he said Abdi, 32, at times does not seem lucid and was "in no condition to assist" in his defense. Authorities had to subdue Abdi on at least two occasions, Sherif said.
Abdi, who owned a cell phone business, has been in custody since Nov. 28, when he was arrested on immigration charges.
"Our government took a healthy man and broke him," Sherif said. "Now I ask our government who broke him to fix him."
Magistrate Judge Mark R. Abel sealed the court transcript in which Sherif privately detailed Abdi's behavior for the magistrate and prosecutors.
Abdi, a native of Somalia, was indicted last week by a federal grand jury and accused of providing material support to al-Qaida by conspiring to blow up an unspecified Columbus-area shopping mall. Authorities say Abdi conspired with convicted al-Qaida member Iyman Faris, also of Columbus, and at least one other person. Faris is serving a 20-year federal sentence for providing material support to al-Qaida.
Abdi acted out in court again Wednesday. After three men had to help him sit down, he immediately let his head fall to the table, and slowly turned his head side-to-side. Throughout the proceedings, he stared at the ceiling and around the courtroom, twitched his body and head and shifted in his chair. At one point he interrupted Sherif by stomping his feet and mumbling.
Abdi was not allowed to see his family until the end of May, Sherif said. He said the extended time without seeing his family and allegations of abuse may have caused his outbursts.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Dana Peters told the court there was no evidence of abuse, but did not object to the mental evaluation.
Nearly 150 members of the Muslim community packed the U.S. District Court courtroom for Abdi's detention hearing. Several hundred rallied outside in support of Abdi.
Jad Humeidan, friend of Abdi and executive director of the Ohio office of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, warned the charges may be an attempt by the federal government to shift attention from the Iraqi war to the threat of domestic terrorism.
"Regardless of whether he is innocent or guilty, we want to make certain that the essence of the Constitution is honored and that at the end of this, justice will truly be served," Humeidan said.
Humeidan said Abdi is a respected member of the community, who never turned anyone down for help and always had a smile on his face.
"Just looking at him today . . I couldn't believe this was the same Nuradin Abdi that I knew for years," he said. "Something had to have happened in those seven or eight months that he was detained."
Humeidan said most people in Columbus' Muslim community did not know Faris very well because he was a truck driver and often out of town. However, many people including Abdi, attended the same mosque as Faris, he said.
"I've shaken hands with Iyman Faris, does that make me guilty?" Humeidan asked. "That doesn't make me guilty and shouldn't make anyone else guilty. It shouldn't make us afraid with being friends with people."
Zahra Mire, who taught Sunday school with Abdi at the mosque, was shocked to hear of the charges. She said Abdi is humble and kind.
"If he is a terrorist, we need proof," Mire said. "If there is proof they need to show us."
AAARRRGGGHHH! These people must think so little of our legal system if they think that all a man has to do is look and act mentally ill to get off of a charge like this.
When a terrorists asks you for help, turn him down.
He's competent to stand trial and in front of a firing squad.
FMCDH(BITS)
I'll get my CCW if you get the smokes.
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