COLUMBUS, Ohio, June 13 (UPI) -- A lawyer for a Somali asylum-seeker has asked a federal judge to bar prosecutors from using statements his client made to the FBI after his arrest in Ohio.
Lawyer Maher Sherif told the Columbus (Ohio) Dispatch that the entire case against Nuradin Abdi comes from the defendant.
After Abdi's arrest, Attorney General John Ashcroft said publicly that he had planned to blow up a shopping mall in Columbus. But the formal charges include lying to federal authorities about an alleged 1999 visit to a terrorist training camp in Ethiopia and immigration violations.
According to Sherif, the FBI held Abdi for several days in 2003 without telling him he was a suspect or notifying him of his rights and obtained an arrest warrant only after he had made incriminating statements.
Sherif has also asked to have the trial moved out of Ohio because of the government's mall claim.
