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Judge invalidates search of indicted imamâs home
A terrorist groupâs manifesto and other items were taken in an illegal search of an Islamic clericâs home and cannot be used at his trial on accusations that he concealed ties to terrorist organizations, a judge has ruled. U.S. District Court Judge James Gwin, in a decision filed late Monday, ruled in favor of a defense motion in the Jan. 13 search of the suburban Strongsville home of Fawaz Mohammed Damra, 41. FBI agents searched the home after the Palestinian-born imam was arrested there. Agents seized a computer, copies of sermons and political speeches, the manifesto of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad and stacks of financial records. Assistant U.S. Attorney James V. Moroney Jr. said the manifesto was the only item from the search that the government intended to use at the trial. No decision was made immediately on whether to appeal the judgeâs ruling, he said.Damraâs wife, Nasreen, was instructed to go to the basement during the arrest, apparently because she was upset, and the "uninvited lingering on the premises" by the agents after the arrest meant the search was unreasonable and therefore illegal, Gwin ruled. "The agentsâ plan all along was apparently to prevent Nasreen Damra from knowing whether she had the right to ask them to leave," the judge said in a 16-page ruling. Damra, leader of the Islamic Center of Cleveland, has pleaded innocent to a charge of obtaining U.S. citizenship in 1994 by providing false information. He is accused of having connections with the Palestinian Islamic Jihad and other groups and not revealing them when he applied for citizenship. The trial is scheduled to begin next Tuesday in Akron. Damra also has been charged with tax evasion, money laundering, mail and wire fraud. Posted by: TS(vice girl) 2004-06-08 |
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