Fort Dix Terror Suspects Get Bail Hearing
December 21, 2007
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The federal jail holding five men accused of plotting an attack on Fort Dix has promised the men will get better access to evidence in their case as a judge considers letting them out on bail.
A bail hearing is scheduled Dec. 20 for the men, charged with preparing to sneak onto the military base and shoot soldiers.
Attorneys for the five say officers at the jail are not giving them time to listen to recordings and view videos containing evidence for the trial. There are 200 hours of audio recordings, and this week, the federal government also provided some 500 hours of surveillance video.
Last month, a frustrated U.S. District Judge Robert Kugler agreed to have a bail hearing to consider releasing the suspects. That way, they would have unfettered access to the computers so they could review the materials.
The move may have been mostly a way to pressure prison officials into letting the men review the recordings more often in detention. But Michael Riley, a defense lawyer for suspect Shain Duka, said it caused new problems.
“When these guys heard bail, now that expectation is they’ll get out,” Riley said. And dealing with that has made trial preparations more difficult too, he said.
The federal Bureau of Prisons sent Kugler a letter earlier this month, but first made public this week, in which it pledges to allow the men access the material each weekday between 7 a.m. and 3 p.m. The men would be given lunch and bathroom breaks and they would be able to use the detention center’s law library.
Prosecutors also have filed papers claiming that the suspects - all foreign-born Muslim men in their 20s - have not requested to see the evidence as often as they claim. The government said that some of the men have promoted terrorism to other inmates at the detention center - an allegation defense lawyers say is untrue.
This week, defense lawyers have asked Kugler to put on hold the bail motion while they wait for yet another video they hope will help their case.
The lawyers have asked for video that would show whether the inmates are putting out slips to request they be allowed to review the recordings. But the Bureau of Prisons says it could take about four weeks to compile that video.
The suspects - Serdar Tatar, Mohamad Ibrahim Shnewer, and the brothers Dritan, Shain and Eljvir Duka - face life in prison if they’ve convicted of conspiring to kill military personnel.
A trial is scheduled to begin March 24, though the lasting conflict over jailhouse issues makes that seem increasingly unlikely.
A sixth man charged in the case, Agron Abdullahu, has pleaded guilty to providing weapons to some of the others.
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