ALEXANDRIA, Va. (AP) — Nearly 15 years ago, five young men from Northern Virginia left the United States to pursue jihad dreams in Afghanistan and then found themselves in detention in Pakistan when their farewell video prompted family members to join them to contact the FBI.
Now, after the five spent a decade in a Pakistani prison, US prosecutors are moving forward with plans to try them again on terrorism charges.
However, at a status hearing Tuesday in the US District Court in Alexandria, a judge gave strong indications that she plans to drop the charges against one of the men because torture and solitary confinement he allegedly endured in Pakistan left him mentally incompetent would have done.
In fact, US District Judge Leonie Brinkema has questioned the advisability of indicting any of the five as they have already been convicted and punished in Pakistan.
“If these men have been prosecuted in Pakistan and have been serving lengthy terms in a Pakistani prison, and the United States government is now trying to charge them with essentially the same conduct in that country, you have to think about whether that makes enough sense Brinkema said on the case during a status hearing in December.
The five men – Waqar Khan, Ahmed Minni, Ramy Zamzam, Aman Yemer and Umar Farooq – were originally known to the FBI after their family reported them missing.
In late 2009, the five left the US for Pakistan, leaving an 11-minute video advocating the need to engage in holy war to defend attacked Muslim countries. Family members tried to stop her from traveling when they found out about the plans, contacting a Muslim civil rights group, the Council on American-Islamic Relations, and eventually attorney Nina Ginsberg and the FBI.
But the five had already made it to Pakistan and started looking for people who could help them get to Afghanistan. According to a recently unsealed FBI affidavit, they were frequently turned away by those seeking them, although one man suggested he could help if one of the five’s extended families in Pakistan could vouch for them.
They were arrested in Sargodha, a town in the eastern province of Punjab, on December 9, 2009, according to the affidavit, about nine days after the FBI learned they had left the US.
Several members of the group admitted to FBI agents that their goal was to fight American troops when they got to Afghanistan.
The five have been charged in Pakistan, where they say they were tortured during their detention – allegations that Pakistani authorities have dismissed. All five were convicted and sentenced to 10 years in prison.
After they have served their sentences, the US government has attempted to bring them to the US to face charges. So far, however, only three of the accused – Zamzam, Yemer and Minni – have been deported back to the United States. A fourth remains in Pakistani custody and a fifth is at large there.
Yemer, who was just 18 when he was arrested and is the youngest of the five, has serious mental health problems. Ginsberg, his lawyer, told the court that Yemer’s skills had eroded after abuse and solitary confinement in Pakistan. As she described, Yemer sits in a chair all day and is unresponsive. He only eats when he’s full and he only goes to the bathroom when someone takes him to the bathroom.
Months in a hospital, including electroshock treatments, have been largely unsuccessful, she said.
“They just knocked him out completely,” Ginsberg said after Tuesday’s hearing, at which her client appeared blank-faced in a gray tracksuit.
Ginsberg said during the hearing that she was confident the US would drop the charges against her client. Brinkema gave clear indications that she will drop the charges against Yemer once Ginsberg files a motion to dismiss, regardless of whether the Justice Department agrees.
As for the other defendants, Attorney John Gibbs expressed optimism that a settlement would be reached and the need for a trial avoided. Lawyers for Zamzam and Minni have said that if an agreement cannot be reached, they plan to seek dismissal because their clients have been denied the right to a speedy trial, among other possible issues.
At a hearing in December, Brinkema questioned whether a US trial would amount to double jeopardy, although it was not immediately clear whether the Pakistan trial would allow defendants to claim double jeopardy protections in the US
For her part, Ginsberg said she did not believe the men deserved further incarceration in the United States
“Ten years in a Pakistani prison is like 30 years in the US,” she said. “You’ve had enough.”
Matthew Barakat, The Associated Press
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