KABUL: Lawyers for two of three Americans on trial for kidnapping and torturing Afghans in a vigilante counter-terror operation said on Wednesday they had videos showing the trio met Afghan President Hamid Karzai’s brother.
John Edwards Tiffany, lawyer for ringleader Jonathan Idema, said the videotapes, which had been among material temporarily confiscated by the FBI, showed “the three Americans being warmly greeted at the Kabul Airport by Afghan officials upon their arrival.” “The officials include Haji Timor, the director of the Kabul Airport; General Babajan who is the commander of the Kabul and Afghan National Police, and President Karzai’s brother,” Tiffany told a press conference in Kabul.
Idema, Brent Bennett and Edward Caraballo are on trial on charges of illegally kidnapping, jailing and torturing Afghans as well as entering Afghanistan without permission or proper documentation. Tiffany, who only arrived in Kabul late August, said the latter charge was disproved by other videotapes — already played in court — showing the three meeting high-level Afghan officials.
Babajan subsequently arrested the three Americans and had been present in court on several occasions but had not come forward to acknowledge greeting the three on their arrival in Afghanistan, the lawyer added. Idema claims the group was working with the full knowledge of US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld to hunt down terrorist suspects.
He says it foiled plots to assassinate senior government leaders and US troops. Tiffany said the group had detained a suspect named Ghulamsaki, who had confessed to a plot to assassinate top Afghan government officials.
He said Ghulamsaki’s brother-in-law Daoud was Osama Bin Laden’s security chief. The American trio were arrested in July for allegedly running a private prison and counter-terrorism operation in Kabul. They could face up to 20 years in jail if found guilty. The trial, which began July 21 and had two hearings in August, will resume on Sunday.
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http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=story_9-9-2004_pg4_113 Americans Urge Dropping of Charges They Ran Afghan Jail
By CARLOTTA GALL
Published: September 8, 2004
ABUL, Afghanistan, Sept. 8 — Lawyers representing two of the three Americans accused of running a private jail and kidnapping and torturing prisoners said today that they had asked the United States ambassador here to request that the Afghan authorities drop the charges.
The lawyers, John Edwards Tiffany, who is representing the suspected ringleader Jonathan K. Idema, and Robert Fogelnest, representing Edward Caraballo, said that Afghan prosecutors had told them they would withdraw the charges if the ambassador requested.
A spokeswoman at the United States Embassy in Kabul confirmed that Zalmay Khalilzad, the ambassador and special envoy to Afghanistan, had received a letter from the lawyers and had forwarded it to the State Department in Washington for guidance. Until now, American officials have been content to allow the Afghan authorities to detain and try the three men.
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/09/08/international/asia/08CND-TRIA.html
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