WASHINGTON (AFP) — Suspected Al-Qaeda sleeper agent Ali al-Marri on Tuesday had his first day in a US federal court after spending nearly six years without charge in a military prison, his lawyer said.
Marri was taken from the Naval Consolidated Brig in the state of South Carolina, where he has been held in isolation, to a court in Charleston to face charges of providing material support to terror groups brought against him by the US government.
"He was given a copy of the indictment, but he was not asked to enter a plea," Marri's lawyer Andrew Savage told AFP.
"He will plead not guilty" when asked by the court, Savage said.
The dual Saudi-Qatari national's transfer to US Marshals Service custody early Tuesday ended his status as the last "enemy combatant" held in the United States, a status president George W. Bush placed on him in June 2003.
His case raised one of the most vexing questions of the Bush administration: whether a US president has the authority to detain terror suspects -- including legal US residents -- indefinitely without charge.
The 43-year-old dual Saudi-Qatari appeared before US Magistrate Judge Robert Carr, a court official said.
The Justice Department "will argue for him to remain in custody" pending his transfer to Illinois and his criminal trial, said Dean Boyd, a spokesman for the Justice Department's national security division.
Marri appeared in leg irons and handcuffs like any other federal pre-trial detainee, but for the first time since being put in the brig he was moved without being forced to wear blackout goggles and earmuffs, which are meant to disorient detainees, according to his lawyer.
Marri was "engaged, attentive and relaxed" in court, Savage said.
He waived his right to an identification proceeding but challenged the justice department's danger presumption as a rationale for keeping him in custody.
The court scheduled Marri's next hearing for March 18.
Unlike the detainees held at the US Naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, Marri was a legal US resident studying at a university in the state of Illinois when he was first arrested in 2001 on credit card fraud charges.
Marri arrived in the United States on the eve of the September 11 attacks in 2001. Bush declared him an "enemy combatant" in 2003 and he had been held in the military brig until Tuesday.
He was formally indicted February 26 on charges of providing support to Al-Qaeda and conspiring with others to do the same, and though he was returned to the brig after his court appearance he will be in the custody of US marshals.
"The public is reminded that the charges contained in an indictment are mere allegations and each defendant is presumed innocent unless and until convicted in a court of law," the Justice Department said in a statement.
The fundamental shift, coming in the opening weeks of President Barack Obama's administration, could signify that the government is inching towards processing some of the prisoners being held indefinitely at Guantanamo in the US court system.
Another Marri lawyer, Jonathan Hafetz of the American Civil Liberties Union, said last month that the decision to charge Marri "is an important step in restoring the rule of law and is what should have happened seven years ago when he was first arrested."
Marri had pursued a case before the US Supreme Court challenging the president's authority to detain terror suspects indefinitely without charge.
The court had agreed to hear the case, but shortly after the government filed its indictment it urged the Supreme Court to set aside as "moot" the constitutional challenge to Marri's detention as an enemy combatant.
The high court sent the case back to an appeals court, effectively delaying the resolution of an issue that could have implications for the estimated 245 "enemy combatants" still held in Guantanamo.
Obama has vowed to shut the "war on terror" prison within a year, amid criticism over US interrogation tactics used on some terror suspects, including "waterboarding," or simulated drowning.
New US Attorney General Eric Holder has ruled out the use of waterboarding as an interrogation technique because it amounted to torture.
Copyright © 2010 AFP. All rights reserved. More »
