The Command Post - Global War On Terror - Three Found Guilty at Michigan Terror Trial

June 03, 2003

Three Found Guilty at Michigan Terror Trial

Three of four Arab immigrants were found guilty of conspiracy at a Michigan terror trial Tuesday -- two of conspiring to support Islamic extremists plotting attacks in the United States and the Middle East, and another of conspiring to engage in fraud. A fourth co-defendant was acquitted of all charges.
Abdel-Ilah Elmardoudi, 37, and Karim Koubriti, 24, were found guilty of two counts -- conspiracy to provide material support or resources to terrorists, and another conspiracy count -- to engage in fraud and misuse of visas, permits and other documents.

Ahmed Hannan, 34, was acquitted of conspiracy to support terrorism, and was found guilty of conspiracy to engage in fraud and misuse of visas, permits and other documents. He was acquitted on two other fraud counts.

Farouk Ali-Haimoud 22, was acquitted of all charges.

Full story....

Posted by michele at June 3, 2003 12:52 PM | TrackBack

Comments

I was really happy to see this, for a number of reasons:

First and foremost because it looks like some terrorists were put away. No more "alleged" for you. No more scare quotes. Convicted terrorists. Has a nice ring to it.

Second, because it looks like the jury did a thorough job, because there were some acquittals. (Of course they could have done a thorough job _and_ convicted them all, too). But it looks like the prosecutors were aggressive (fine with me!) and the jury bought most, but not all, of the case against the accused. Which is also fine, that's the way the system works.

Third, because there was a trial at all. No plea bargan - which is good because there can be no charges of coercion. If you think this is a bogus concern, read this - http://www.instapundit.com/archives/008731.php

I'm looking forward to 'Mike' Hawash's trial - which now looks like it's scheduled for Jan 2004. Over on LGF a while back I made a bunch of noise about the likelyhood of a coerced plea bargan here, and I'm happy that it looks like I've been proven wrong. I hope the trial happens. And if he's guilty, of so much as being a wannabe conspirator, then I hope he gets convicted.

Posted by: lewy14 at June 4, 2003 06:53 AM

Well, two of the guys charged weren't convicted of so-called terrorist activities - one was acquitted of all charges, and the other was convicted on a fraud charge, so this hardly a complete victory for the DOJ.

Posted by: jacques at June 6, 2003 03:23 PM

lewy14,

BTW, you really need to do some research into the nature of inchoate crimes.

Posted by: jacques at June 6, 2003 03:24 PM