Attorney seeks hearing on whether witnesses were tortured in Padilla terror case

By Sean Gardiner
South Florida Sun-Sentinel

06/10/06 "Sun-Sentinel" -- -- Suspected terrorist Jose Padilla is seeking a hearing to determine if statements from two alleged al-Qaida operatives that led to his arrest and the seizure of key evidence were obtained through torture or drugs.

Padilla's attorney Andrew Patel filed his motion in Miami federal court Thursday. He contends that according to an unsealed FBI affidavit, suspected terrorist agents Abu Zubayda and Binyam Ahmed Muhammad provided the probable cause used to arrest his client.

Muhammad has since claimed that after being arrested in Karachi on April 10, 2002, his Pakistani abductors whipped and tortured him between interrogations with four men he believes were FBI agents, Patel said in the motion.

"A torture victim will say whatever his abuser wants to hear to make the torture stop," Patel wrote.

Zubayda had been shot in the stomach and groin when captured in Pakistan, the motion said. FBI paperwork on Zubayda indicated he was "treated with various types of medication" at the time of his interrogation, the attorney wrote. However, the type or dosage isn't mentioned, making it impossible for the defense to determine "what effect the medications may have had on Abu Zubayda's ability to provide accurate information," according to the motion.

On these men's word, Patel contends, Padilla was arrested May 8, 2002, upon arrival at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport from Switzerland.

At a news conference a month later, President Bush accused Padilla, who grew up in Plantation, of being part of a plot to detonate radioactive, or dirty, bombs in the United States.

Padilla was classified as an "enemy combatant" and held in a military brig, without being charged criminally, for 31/2 years.

In November, in the face of a legal challenge, the Bush administration conceded his "enemy combatant" status. Instead, Padilla was indicted in Miami federal court along with four others on charges of being a part of a "North American support cell" designed to send money and recruits to holy wars overseas.

At the time Padilla was arrested, FBI agents seized a cell phone allegedly provided by al-Qaida agents, an address book and more than $10,000 in cash. Patel wants those items barred as evidence at trial because he says the warrant for Padilla's arrest was based on informants rendered unreliable by torture or medical distress.

Patel asked Judge Marcia Cooke to have Muhammad, who is being held in Guantanamo Bay detention camp, and Zubayda, who is being held in an undisclosed place in the United States, testify at an evidentiary hearing.

U.S. Attorney R. Alexander Acosta declined to comment.

Sean Gardiner can be reached at stgardiner@sun-sentinel.com or 954-356-4514.

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