Criminal charges against accused al-Qaeda operative Jose Padilla should be thrown out because of “outrageous government conduct” during his 3 1/2-year detention in a South Carolina Navy brig, Padilla’s defense lawyers say.
“The government’s conduct vis-a-vis Mr. Padilla is a stain on this nation’s character, and through its illegal conduct, the government has forfeited its right to prosecute Mr. Padilla,” his lawyers said in a legal motion filed this week.
In two additional motions, the lawyers argue the case should be dismissed because the government took too much time between arresting Padilla and charging him. They contend Padilla’s ability to defend himself is compromised as a result of the delay and the mental trauma he suffered.
Defense lawyers say the government’s tactics constitute torture and were “designed to cause pain, anguish, depression and, ultimately, the loss of will to live.”
The new defense motions shift focus from Padilla’s guilt or innocence to his controversial detention as an enemy combatant. The court documents give the most detailed glimpse to date of Padilla’s life after he was designated an enemy combatant in 2002.
Padilla is charged with participating in a North American terror cell and traveling to the Middle East for military training. According to Padilla’s attorneys, the former Broward County resident spent 1,307 days in a 9-by-7-foot cell in an isolated unit of the brig. Sometimes he would be left for hours with his wrists and ankles bound to a chain around his torso, his lawyers state. At night, guards kept him awake with bright lights and loud noises.
During interrogations, Padilla’s captors threatened to cut him and pour alcohol on the wounds, to send him to Guantanamo Bay or execute him, according to his attorneys.
They also said his jailers subjected him to noxious fumes and cold temperatures, physically assaulted him and gave him drugs against his will.
Motions to dismiss criminal matters based on government misconduct are granted only in extreme cases. More often, judges exclude evidence derived as a result of the government’s illegal conduct. In Padilla’s case, Justice Department officials said they will not introduce evidence gathered from his interrogations in military custody.
South Florida U.S. Attorney R. Alexander Acosta could not be reached for comment despite two calls to his cell phone.
The government’s treatment of Padilla, a U.S. citizen, has been the subject of several court rulings and criticism from civil-liberties advocates.
Authorities arrested Padilla, 35, in May 2002 at O’Hare International Airport and later transferred him to military custody on suspicion he intended to carry out a terror attack on U.S. soil. For nearly two years, Padilla could not see an attorney because he was treated as an “enemy combatant,” not a criminal defendant.
Critics said the president abused his power by locking up Padilla without charges. His case reached the U.S. Supreme Court in 2004, but justices sent the case back to lower courts for further review.
In 2005, the government switched course, adding Padilla to an ongoing criminal case in Miami.
Some of the interrogation tactics described in the defense motions — including sleep deprivation, stress positions and exposure to cold — mirror those approved by the Bush administration for use on terror suspects at Guantanamo Bay.
