ALEXANDRIA - Prosecutors in the case of United States Taleban John Walker Lindh need not prove he killed Americans, but they must show he knowingly belonged to groups that had this deadly goal, a judge said yesterday.
"The Government will have to prove at trial that this conspiracy existed and that the defendant knowingly joined this conspiracy ... that he knew the object of this conspiracy was to kill Americans in Afghanistan, Pakistan or in the United States," US District Judge T. S. Ellis said in a pre-trial hearing in Lindh's conspiracy case.
Lindh's indictment did not charge him with killing Americans, but rather with being involved in a conspiracy that aimed to kill Americans abroad. Ellis agreed with prosecutors that they need not show he actually killed Americans, giving prosecutors an apparent advantage.
Lindh, a 21-year-old Californian, walked into court and smiled at members of his family in the gallery.
His dark hair was cut short and his face clean-shaven, in contrast to photographs taken when he was captured last November in Afghanistan, which showed him with shoulder-length hair and a beard.
Lindh's lawyers have released another image of Lindh, taken in December at the US Camp Rhino at Kandahar, to support their claim he was mistreated while in custody.
He is shown naked, seemingly tied to a cot with straps around his chest and his wrists, his eyes covered with what appears to be tape or a blindfold.
"The Government had said that they treated John the same as American soldiers," Lindh attorney James Brosnahan said outside the courtroom. "The picture might indicate to the casual observer that that was not the case."
Prosecutors said in court papers on Friday that Lindh was not tortured by the US military after his capture, and said he got medical treatment for his wounds, better sleeping conditions than his doctor, healthy meals and a haircut.
Lindh was charged in a 10-count indictment that included conspiring to kill US civilians and military personnel abroad, engaging in prohibited transactions with Afghanistan's deposed Taleban rulers and conspiring with and aiding the Taleban and Osama bin Laden's extremist al Qaeda network.
Washington sees bin Laden as the force behind the September 11 terrorist attacks in which some 3000 people were killed.
Lindh, who converted to Islam as a teenager, could potentially face life in prison if convicted. Trial is set to begin on August 26.
Captured in the fall of Kunduz in Afghanistan, Lindh was shot in the leg during a bloody prison uprising outside the northern Afghan city of Mazar-i-Sharif, where CIA officer Johnny "Mike" Spann was killed. Ellis agreed that prosecutors did not have to show Lindh was directly responsible for Spann's death to prove their case.
Prosecutor David Kelley said Lindh trained in Taleban and al Qaeda camps, and said it did not matter whether these camps were described as terrorist, saying both were listed as terrorist organisations by the US Government.
"It's not what you learn there, it's how you use it," Kelley said in court. "If he's doing it for al Qaeda or Taleban, which are terrorist organisations, then that fits the statute."
- REUTERS
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