http://www.newsday.com/news/local/wire/newyork/ny-bc-ny--attacks-materialw11 16nov16,0,416389.story?coll=ny-region-apnewyork
Jury weighs fate of man accused of lying about Sept. 11 hijacker By DAVID B. CARUSO Associated Press Writer November 16, 2006, 6:23 PM EST NEW YORK -- For the second time, a jury is considering whether a foreign college student involuntarily sucked into the Sept. 11 terror probe tried to distance himself from the case by lying to a grand jury about how well he knew one of the hijackers. Osama Awadallah was arrested in San Diego 10 days after the 2001 terror attacks when a slip of paper with his phone number on it was found in a hijacker's car. He spent the next 20 days jailed as a material witness while authorities tried to figure out what he knew. Agents finally concluded that Awadallah was no terrorist and had only known hijackers Nawaf al-Hazmi and Khalid al-Mihdhar briefly, but he was charged with perjury over a contentious grand jury session in which he claimed he didn't remember al-Mihdhar's name. The first trial on the perjury charge ended in a hung jury last spring. In his closing argument at the retrial on Thursday, defense attorney Jesse Berman said Awadallah, who was 20 when he was arrested, was simply exhausted, confused and frightened during his grand jury testimony and didn't intend to mislead anyone. "He was sincerely trying to be helpful," Berman said. He accused FBI agents and prosecutors of deliberately provoking and upsetting Awadallah, who was handcuffed to his chair. In the weeks leading up to his testimony, Awadallah was kept in solitary confinement and was subjected to strip searches. He also claimed to have been beaten by his jailers. "All the importance of the 9/11 investigation doesn't justify treating this man like a dog," Berman said. Assistant U.S. Attorney Karl Metzner told jurors there was no evidence Awadallah was confused, forgetful or disoriented by mistreatment. "He didn't make a mistake. He lied deliberately," Metzner said. The smoking gun, he said, was an examination booklet that Awadallah had filled out for an English class a few days before his arrest. In it, he had written, "One of the quietest people I have met is Nawaf. Another one, his name is Khalid." Metzner said that proved that Awadallah knew the hijackers better than he had let on. "He decided he was only going to tell the grand jury as much as he thought he had to, and no more," Metzner said. Jurors began their deliberations Thursday evening. They went home for the night without having reached a verdict and were to continue their work Friday. Awadallah, who was born in Venezuela and raised in Jordan, could face up to five years in prison if convicted, although U.S. District Judge Shira Scheindlin said during the case that she would be unlikely to sentence him to significant jail time. He also could be deported. The trial focused on a strained exchange between Awadallah and his interrogators during his grand jury testimony of Oct. 10, 2001. During the session, Awadallah acknowledged repeatedly that he knew al-Hazmi. The two had attended the same mosque and worked at the same gas station in San Diego. He also described a second man who was often in al-Hazmi's company but said he couldn't remember his name. Asked if he knew anyone named Khalid, Awadallah said no. A skeptical prosecutor then confronted Awadallah with the examination booklet. Caught off guard, Awadallah initially claimed someone else had doctored the document. Five days later, he appeared before the grand jury a second time and acknowledged that the sentence was his. He said his earlier testimony had been confused. [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] -------------------------- Want to discuss this topic? 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