Prosecutors say a Uzbekistan refugee used code words to arrange and then pay a $300 contribution to the Islamic Jihad Union. But the defendant’s attorney argues he was just repaying a debt to a friend.
Bakhtiyor Jumaev’s jury trial started Thursday morning in U.S. District Court in Denver. Prosecutors allege Jumaev provided material support to and conspired to join the Islamic Jihad Union.
“It’s a crime to send money or property to a terrorist organization,” prosecutor Gregory Holloway said during his opening statement before Senior U.S. District Judge John Kane. Jumaev sent at least $300 to co-defendant Jamshid Muhtorov in the spring of 2011 for the group, he said.
“That’s why we’re here.”
Holloway said during an interview with FBI agents on March 15, 2012, Jumaev admitted he sent the money to Muhtorov to support the Islamic Jihad Union and knew it was a terrorist organization.
But Jumaev’s attorney David Barry Savitz said the FBI illegally extracted a false confession from Jumaev by arresting him after he worked a graveyard shift and interrogating him for three hours.
“He considered himself trapped. He was scared. He was exhausted,” Savitz said during his opening statement. The questioning reminded him of being interrogated by the infamous Uzbekistan National Security Service in 1999, Savitz said. Those agents severely beat Jumaev, Savitz said.
“In his mind it was deja vu all over again.”
Savitz discounted the government’s claim that Jumaev used code words like wedding when he really meant jihad. The $300 that Jumaev gave Muhtorov was a partial repayment of the $500 bond his friend paid to get Jumaev out of jail in 2010, Savitz said.
“It was strictly intended to pay his debt and has nothing to do with the IJU,” Savitz said.
Jumaev sat stoically at the defense table and listened to interpreters translate from English to his native Uzbek language. Over the course of the trial, interpreters of five languages including Arabic, Tajiki and Russian will assist Jumaev, Kane said.
A jury of 12, plus four alternates was originally seated for the trial, but one had an unexpected illness and will not serve, Kane announced.
In January, Jumaev’s attorneys asked a judge not to let prosecutors show jurors a beheading video that FBI agents found on his co-defendant’s computer.
Jumaev contends the video discovered on Muhtorov‘s computer is not relevant to his case and could unfairly inflame jurors against him if it’s shown. FBI agents discovered the beheading video along with other violent paramilitary terrorist training videos on Muhtorov’s computer.
“There is no evidence that Mr. Jumaev viewed any or most of the Muhtorov electronic evidence, particularly the most violent ones,” the motion said.
Jumaev’s case has drawn death threats and prompted unusual security measures, including something rarely seen in any courtroom: One critical witness is expected to take the stand using an alias and wearing a disguise.
That’s one of a slew of extraordinary security measures that will be used to safeguard U.S. intelligence agents and prosecution witnesses during Jumeav’s trial. If convicted, Jumeav faces up to 15 years in prison.
Some security measures are being taken because Muhtorov has allegedly made death threats against a witness who U.S. prosecutors say is key to federal terrorist trials across the U.S.
Source : Denver Post