US citizen faces terrorism trial after 3½ years in custody

Terror suspect charged in nick of time

After holding accused “dirty bomber” Jose Padilla without charges for 3 1/2 years, the Justice Department yesterday charged him with conspiracy to commit terrorist acts overseas.

The charges come just days before a key deadline in Mr Padilla’s appeal to the US Supreme Court challenging his indefinite imprisonment.

They include conspiring to “murder, kidnap and maim” people in a foreign country and providing material support to terrorists. If convicted, he faces life in prison.

But none of the charges covers the activity in the United States that the Government used to justify Mr Padilla’s status as an “enemy combatant”, including his alleged plans to blow up apartment buildings and desire to detonate a radioactive bomb.

Mr Padilla’s indictment “demonstrates that we will use every tool at our disposal in fighting the war on terrorism”, Attorney-General Alberto Gonzales said at a briefing to explain the charges…

But Mr Padilla’s lawyers also claimed the charges as a victory. They said last summer that the Government should “put up or shut up” by charging their client or setting him free.

“It’s always nice when the Government returns to the Constitution,” said Andrew Patel, one of Mr Padilla’s lawyers. “I think they’re looking to avoid going to the Supreme Court.”

The Bush administration, determined not to yield any ground on the constitutional issues in the case of Jose Padilla , has indicated it may still hold the accused enemy combatant  indefinitelyeven if he is acquitted of the terrorist conspiracy charges he was indicted on this week.

But Mr Patel said Mr Padilla’s legal team would continue to ask the high court to take up the case and set ground rules for how President George W. Bush and future presidents could detain suspects captured in the war on terror. “We really do think it’s important for the Supreme Court to resolve this,” Mr Patel said.

Jonathan Freiman, a lawyer for Padilla, said that a senior lawyer  in the Solicitor General’s office told him Wednesday that the government still asserts it has the power to hold his clientregardless of the outcome of the criminal case against him.

I was told, he’s still an enemy combatant according to the president and therefore they can still detain him at anytime, Freiman said. 

Freiman declined to identify which senior lawyer in the Solicitor General’s office made the assertion. The Justice Department’s director of public affairs, Tasia Scolinos, would not say today whether Padilla, a U.S. citizen born in Chicago,  would be freed were he to be acquitted in the criminal case announced Tuesday by Attorney General Alberto Gonzales. The prosecutors believe this is a very strong case, she said when asked what would happen in the event of an acquittal. We’re not going to talk about hypotheticals.

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