A U.S. judge on Friday refused to grant bail to an Arabic translator charged with trying to encourage violent acts on behalf of the Islamic Group, described as a terrorist organization by prosecutors. The defendant, Ahmed Abdel Sattar, had been a translator for radical Muslim cleric Sheik Omar Abdel-Rahman, who is serving a life sentence for his role in a plot to bomb U.S. landmarks.
| Sounds like job security... |
Kenneth Paul, Sattar's lawyer, asked U.S. District Judge John Koeltl to release Sattar on a $3 million bond and an order of home confinement.
| Koeltl laughed his ass offf... |
Koeltl declined, saying Sattar had a great incentive to flee, particularly as his Jan. 12 trial date grows closer. Sattar, a postal worker living in Staten Island, was jailed in April 2002 when he and Abdel-Rahman's lawyer, Lynne Stewart, were indicted on charges they had helped Abdel-Rahman communicate with the Egypt-based Islamic Group from prison. Koeltl denied Sattar bail at that time, finding that he posed a danger to the community and he was a flight risk. Stewart is free on bail. Last month Koeltl dismissed two key counts against Sattar and Stewart. He ruled that accusations that they conspired to support a terrorism organization were unconstitutionally vague.
| What, precisely, is vague in the definition of "slaughter infidels"? |
Other serious charges remain. One accuses Sattar of soliciting crimes of violence for trying to persuade individuals to carry out "terrorist operations worldwide" to achieve the Islamic Group's goals. That charge carries a 20-year prison term. |