Padilla trial is nearing the end

Five years after his arrest, a jury hears closing arguments.

By MEG LAUGHLIN, Times Staff Writer
Published August 15, 2007

In a gray courtroom full of gray computer screens and gray suits, the closing arguments of prosecutors and defense attorneys in the widely publicized Jose Padilla trial were presented in stark black and white.

Federal prosecutors insisted that the three defendants gave money and services for terrorism in a conspiracy to murder, maim and kidnap abroad. Defense attorneys cried foul, saying their clients had simply contributed to relief for Muslim victims of genocide and ethnic cleansing.

Lead prosecutor Brian Frazier laid it out like this: "Adham Hassoun recruited Jose Padilla and others to fight violent jihad. Padilla, his mujahedeen recruit, was an al-Qaida terrorist trainee in Afghanistan. Kifah Jayyousi furnished him and others supplies to fight violent jihad."

Padilla, who was born in Brooklyn, was arrested in May 2002 in Chicago as he returned from Pakistan. He was initially accused of planning an al-Qaida "dirty bomb" attack.

Held as an enemy combatant for 3 1/2 years in a military prison, Padilla, 36, was indicted in 2005 by a federal grand jury in Miami. The alleged "dirty bomb" plot was not part of the indictment. If convicted, he and his co-defendants could get life in prison.

Frazier compared the defendants to a "football club." Padilla was the player, he said, and Hassoun, 45, of Sunrise and Jayyousi, 45, of San Diego were the boosters who raised money and urged him on.

Jayyousi's attorney told jurors not to believe prosecutors just because they said something. William Swor said Frazier mentioned al-Qaida 100 times in his closing.

"Demand evidence," he said. "It is not enough for the government to bring in snippets and try to spin them."

The primary piece of evidence, said Frazier, as he showed jurors a poster of a fingerprint, was "Padilla's mujahedeen data form" from July, 2000, which he said Padilla submitted to train with al-Qaida in Afghanistan. Padilla's prints are on the first and last page, he said.

"The star recruit for murder was right here in our own back yard," Frazier said. Padilla, he said, was going to the camp with the funding of the other two defendants in order to train to kill.

"Where does anyone talk about murder? It's just not there," countered Hassoun's lawyer Ken Swartz.

U.S. Assistant Public Defender Michael Caruso pointed out that Padilla' fingerprints were only on the first page and back of the last page, while unidentified fingerprints were all over the five pages. He said the prints were in a direction which showed he had been handed the form upside down, but had not filled it out.

"It doesn't matter if he wrote on the form himself," said Frazier. "What matters is that it's personal information about him on an al-Qaida form."

Padilla's lawyer countered that a government witness who had attended the camp in Afghanistan said not everyone whose name appeared on a form went to the camp and that among those who did were men like him whose intent was to become more religious, not kill.

The jury of three African-Americans, five Latinos and four whites listened intently to the conclusion of the three-month trial, which came after five years of solitary confinement for Padilla and Hassoun. Jayyousi, a former public school administrator arrested in 2005, has remained out on bond.

Jurors reviewed transcripts from 126 phone calls recorded by the government over six years, though Padilla is heard on only seven. Jurors perused more than 300 pieces of evidence, including checks from Hassoun and Jayyousi to organizations such as Global Relief Foundation and American Worldwide Relief, which prosecutors say are linked to terrorism.

Padilla's attorneys called no witnesses on his behalf and introduced no evidence.

During the closing, Caruso described his client as "slow," but Padilla appeared to follow the proceedings. At times, he turned and smiled at his mother, Estela Ortega Lebron, seated in the back.

Caruso said that the real crime would be to "deprive a man of his liberty for a crime he didn't commit."

Lebron broke into sobs. Padilla turned around. This time he didn't smile.

Information from Reuters and the Guardian was used in this report. Times researcher Angie Holan contributed.

[Last modified August 15, 2007, 00:23:12]