Al-Arian walk watch: “Defense Wants Statements Blocked,” from the Tampa Tribune, with thanks to Teri:
TAMPA – A Sami Al-Arian co-defendant wants statements from more than 100 unindicted alleged co-conspirators blocked from use in the defendants’ upcoming trial.
Those statements are hearsay unless the government proves the people were part of a criminal conspiracy and that the statements advanced that conspiracy, wrote M. Allison Guagliardo, an attorney representing Hatim Naji Fariz.
Al-Arian and Fariz are scheduled to go on trial May 16, along with Sameeh Hammoudeh and Ghassan Zayed Ballut, on charges they helped organize and finance the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, a terrorist organization that has claimed responsibility for numerous suicide bombings in Israel….
Guagliardo wrote that the government should have to prove that the Palestinian Islamic Jihad was responsible for suicide bombings and other attacks. It is not enough, she maintained, that the organization issued statements claiming responsibility.
“Claims may be made for purposes of boasting, political posturing, and any number of other motives, or they may even be based on mistaken information,” she wrote.
But they certainly show the beliefs and priorities of the organization making them, no?