WASHINGTON -- A federal judge, heeding warnings that Edwin Wilson might flee the country, refused to reduce the $20 million bond for the ex-CIA agent awaiting trial on charges of assisting Libyan terrorism.
Government lawyers, while warning Wilson might flee, also told U.S. District Judge John Lewis Smith Jr. the former intelligence officer had threatened the life of an assistant U.S. attorney.
Wilson, 54, is charged with supplying Libya's Moammar Khadafy with arms, explosives, pilots and experts to boost the Arab leader's territorial ambitions in North Africa.
Khadafy has been branded by U.S. officials as an exporter of terrorism worldwide. Wilson allegedly helped equip and train the Libyan 'hit squads' that have murdered nearly a dozen Khadafy enemies.
Wilson, a hulking man with thinning blondish hair, huddled with his attorneys during the heavily guarded, hour-long court proceeding.
Lawyer Herald Fahringer, representing Wilson, called the $20 million bond too high -- 'equivalent to no bail at all' -- and promised his client would gladly accept any conditions if only he could be released while awaiting trial.
But U.S. prosecutor Carole Bruce predicted Wilson 'can and will' post the $20 million bond, saying he has accumulated enough wealth from his overseas enterprises that he 'could live comfortably and luxuriously as a fugitive elsewhere.'
Immediately after the judge's ruling, Wilson spoke quietly in front of his lawyers with Assistant U.S. Attorney Larry Barcella, the prosecutor allegedly threatened by Wilson after the fugitive was tricked into returning to the United States last month.
Wilson had asked that his bond be reduced to $500,000. The government maintained he should not be released at all.
Besides questioning whether Wilson would remain in the country if freed on bail, Ms. Bruce also expressed concern he 'will try to make good on his threat on Mr. Barcella.'
The government claims Wilson made the threat against Barcella, who is involved in the Wilson case, to a government contact who aided in the plot to lure Wilson from Libya to the United States to face charges.
