MIAMI, April 16 (UPI) -- The federal trial for U.S. terror suspect Jose Padilla began in Miami Monday with his claims of torture during detention figuring highly.
The 36-year-old former Chicago gang member and convert to Islam was arrested by the FBI in 2002 at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport, and was first charged with plotting to detonate a radioactive "dirty bomb" in a major U.S. city.
He was held at a U.S. Navy military brig in South Carolina for three and half years, and last year claimed he had been tortured with sensory-distorting extremes of light, temperature, noise and smell, the Los Angeles Times reported.
In November 2005, U.S. President George Bush dropped Padilla's "enemy combatant" status, and he and Kifah Wael Jayyousi and Adham Amin Hassoun of South Florida were charged with providing money and manpower to extremist groups in Bosnia, Chechnya and Afghanistan.
The charges carry a possible sentence of life in prison upon conviction.
