Posted on 01/13/2004 3:11:25 PM PST by blam
Guilty verdict in spying case
Tue Jan 13,11:14 AM ET - Chicago Tribune
By Matt O'Connor, Tribune staff reporter
A federal jury deliberated less than three hours Monday before convicting a suburban Arabic-language newspaper publisher on charges he acted as a secret agent of Iraq before Saddam Hussein fall.
The government alleged that since 1999, Palestinian-born Khaled Abdel-Latif Dumeisi provided information to Mukhabbarat, the Iraqi intelligence agency, about Hussein opponents living in the U.S.
Prosecutors said Dumeisi betrayed the U.S. out of admiration for Hussein's support for the Palestinian cause and to get money for his cash-strapped publication, though he pocketed only a few thousand dollars.
Among the prosecution's most critical pieces of evidence was a dossier recovered in Iraq after the war last year that showed the intelligence gathered by "Sirhan"--identified in the papers as the publisher of Al-Mahjer, the name of Dumeisi's newspaper formerly based in southwest suburban Burbank.
A former high-ranking Mukhabbarat official, testifying under the alias of "Mr. Sargon" to protect him and his family, testified the dossier was an Iraqi intelligence file.
In closing arguments Monday, lawyers for Dumeisi blasted the government's case, calling Sargon unreliable and questioning the dossier's authenticity.
But after hearing six days of testimony and arguments, the jury convicted Dumeisi, 61, of four counts of failing to register as a foreign agent, conspiracy and perjury for lying in an immigration hearing and before a federal grand jury.
Following the verdict, U.S. Atty. Patrick J. Fitzgerald told reporters the conviction "sends an important message that people can't come to our country and spy on fellow residents of our country.
"The Iraqi regime is not exactly a regime you would want having information on you if they considered you hostile," said Fitzgerald, as Thomas Kneir, FBI special agent in charge of Chicago, stood at his side.
(Excerpt) Read more at story.news.yahoo.com ...
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