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Pakistani suspect allowed to use Qaeda statements

NEW YORK: A 24-year-old Pakistani man has been allowed to use statements from Al Qaeda prisoners to defend himself against the charge of aiding terrorists, a judge ruled.

However US District Judge Sidney H Stein denied Uzair Paracha’s request to call as witnesses Majid Khan, Ammar Al-Baluchi and Al Qaeda leader Khalid Shaikh Mohammed. The judge also refused to permit the testimony of Paracha’s father, Saifullah Paracha, a Karachi, Pakistan, businessman, who is being held by the United States at the naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

The judge ruled Monday that Khalid Mohammed’s testimony was irrelevant and that the government had made a sufficient claim that the testimony of Khan and Al-Baluchi would raise significant national security issues. Anthony Ricco, Mr Paracha’s lawyer, said the upcoming trial would be the first time statements by Al Qaeda operatives would be used in a jury trial after 9/11.

“The statements completely contradict the official theory on the case,” Ricco said outside the courtroom. The prosecutor’s office was not available for comment on Monday. More than 200 prospective jurors in the case filled out questionnaires on Monday. Opening statements were set to begin as early as Wednesday. Paracha is accused of meeting with Mohammed and another al Qaeda member in Pakistan before entering the US in early 2003.

The indictment charges Paracha with conspiring to support Al Qaeda, conspiring to violate laws barring economic support for Al Qaeda and committing document fraud in aid of terrorism. Paracha has been held without bail since his March 2003 arrest as a material witness in the government’s 9/11 probe.

The prosecutors claim Paracha said that his father met Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan six to 12 months before the 9/11 attacks. They said he also believed Khan to be an Al Qaeda operative and that by helping Khan he was assisting Al Qaeda. The government also alleged that Paracha told investigators he and his father met with a man whom his father described as a scientist and chemistry professor who had been tasked by Al Qaeda with developing biological and chemical weapons.

In their statements, Khan and Al-Baluchi said Paracha was unaware that they had Al Qaeda connections, according to court records. ap

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