Copyright 2007 Star Tribune
All Rights Reserved
Star Tribune (Minneapolis, MN)
July 13, 2007 Friday
Metro Edition
NEWS; Pg. 4B
454 words
Psychiatric exam could delay Elzahabi's trial
;
The terrorism suspect's attorney opposes the motion for a mental health
evaluation, saying, ``There's no basis for it.'' His client has been
awaiting trial for three years.
Dan Browning, Staff Writer
Federal prosecutors filed a motion Thursday asking a judge to order a
psychiatric examination of terrorism suspect Mohamad Kamal Elzahabi to
determine whether he is competent to stand trial July 30.
If granted, the move would delay the trial another couple of months for a
man who has been confined in an undisclosed maximum-security prison for
three years. That's longer than he would likely receive as a sentence if
convicted of the immigration charges against him, said his attorney, Paul
Engh of Minneapolis.
Engh wrote U.S. District Judge John Tunheim this week advising him that
Elzahabi has refused to meet with his defense team for four months and would
possibly boycott his trial.
The attorney also said Thursday that he opposes the prosecution's motion.
"There's no basis for it," Engh said. "He's not mentally ill. It's a
continuation of the government's stalling on the case."
Engh anticipated the prosecution's motion for a competency hearing in his
letter to Tunheim, arguing that there must be "reasonable cause" for him to
order an evaluation.
"As of six months ago, he is aware of the charges and their meaning, and has
often expressed an understanding to counsel as to how unfair the process of
his case has been," Engh wrote.
But prosecutors noted in their motion that "the Supreme Court has held that
due process requires a hearing whenever evidence raises a sufficient doubt
about the mental competency of an accused to stand trial. A failure to hold
a competency hearing in the presence of sufficient doubt ... is a violation
of the accused's right to due process, and thus reversible error," they
wrote.
Tunheim said he had wanted to determine Elzahabi's competence to stand trial
at a hearing last week, but Elzahabi didn't attend, prosecutors noted.
A Lebanese national in his mid-40s, Elzahabi was charged in 2004 on
suspicion of lying to federal authorities about sending walkie-talkies to
Pakistan, and for allegedly helping obtain a Massachusetts driver's license
for Ri'ad Hijazi, who was convicted of plotting to bomb American and Israeli
tourists in Jordan.
Elzahabi was indicted on additional charges in 2005, alleging that he paid a
U.S. citizen to marry him and used a green card he obtained through that
marriage to try to get jobs in the Twin Cities in 2001 and 2002.
His lawyers filed a motion last month seeking to sever the charges involving
the walkie-talkies and the license; they want to proceed to trial only on
the immigration charges. Federal prosecutors don't object to severing the
walkie-talkie charge but argued that the driver's license charge is integral
to the remaining counts.
If Elzahabi is convicted, Engh said he would seek a sentence of time served.
Dan Browning - 612-673-4493
July 16, 2007
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