– judge grants protective order to prevent misuse
US national security documents are expected to be used against the accused in the John F Kennedy (JFK) International airport terror plot trial and presiding judge, Justice Dora Irizarry yesterday granted a protective order to ensure that the information does not get into the wrong hands.
Former Guyanese parliamentarian, Abdul Kadir; former JFK worker Russell Defreitas, a Guyanese-born US citizen; Kareem Ibrahim, an imam from Trinidad; Guyanese Abdel Nur have been charged with conspiring to blow up JFK airport, tanks storing aviation fuel and underground fuel pipelines.
The order signed yesterday by Judge Irizarry would prevent the unauthorized disclosure or dissemination of classified national security information and documents, which will be reviewed or made available to the defendants’ counsel by the government during the prosecution of the case. Prosecutor Benton Campbell who had sought the order said its purpose was to establish procedures that must be followed by counsel and the parties in the case.
The defence will now have to seek guidance from the Court Security Officer with regard to the appropriate storage, transmittal and use of the classified information. The security officer is tasked with arranging for and maintaining an appropriately approved secure area for the use of defence counsel and ensuring that it is accessible during business hours and at other times upon reasonable request as approved by the officer.
None of the documents are to be removed without permission and the security officer shall not reveal to the government the content of any conversations he or she may hear among the defence, nor reveal the nature of the documents being reviewed or the work generated. And should the defence or the government file any paper that may include classified information, only the parts that do not contain the classified information would be unsealed.
The defence would also be prohibited from disclosing, without prior approval of the court, the contents of any classified documents or information to any persons not named in the court order and from discussing the information over any standard commercial telephone instrument or office intercommunication system, including but not limited to the internet, or in the presence of any person who has not received an appropriate approval for access to such information.
Any unauthorized disclosure of classified information may constitute violations of the US criminal laws and any violation of the terms of the order shall be taken immediately before the court and may result in a charge of contempt of court and possible referral for criminal prosecution.
Benton said that counsel for each defendant have reviewed the order and are expected to file a memorandum of understanding indicating that they understand and will comply with the terms of the order.
Kadir and Ibrahim were arrested in Trinidad, while Defreitas was held in New York. Nur later handed himself over to law enforcement officers in Trinidad.
Kadir was arrested in July 2007 after he had transited in Trinidad and was already on his way to Venezuela when the plane was ordered to turn back and he was arrested and the charges read to him in the Port of Spain Magistrate’s Court.
One of the man’s daughters had said her father had been on his way to Iran where he had been invited to attend an Islamic conference when he was arrested. She had said that Kadir had left Guyana on the morning of the very day he was arrested and he had been scheduled to travel to Venezuela to pick up his Iranian visa before proceeding to Iran.
The prosecution has since indicated that it plans to use evidence provided through taped conversations from way back in December 2006 in the case. Transcripts of some 43 conversations taped between December 2006 and June 2007 have since been handed over to the four lawyers for the defence.
The conversations were consensually taped.
The four are set to appear in court again on April 17 before Judge Irizarry.