On the morning of Wednesday, August 15th, a jury of twelve went behind closed doors to begin deliberations in the trial of Jose Padilla and two co-defendants who were charged with operating a support cell for Islamic terrorists, including al-Qaeda.

The jurors will initially deliberate from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on weekdays and will not be sequestered. U.S. District Judge Marcia Cooke has, however, prohibited the jurors from consuming any news media covering the case.

Padilla, a U.S. citizen, had been initially investigated from 1993 to 2001. He was arrested by federal agents in May of 2002 at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport and was held as material witness until June of that year in relation to a warrant issued by the state of New York regarding the 9/11 attacks; it was believed he was involved in a plot to set off a “dirty bomb” in a U.S. city.

The “dirty bomb” accusations are not present in this trial, partially because Padilla “was not provided a lawyer or read his constitutional rights when he was interrogated about the plot while in military custody.“

On June 9th, 2002, President Bush declared Padilla an Illegal Enemy Combatant and transferred him to a military brig in South Carolina, arguing that he was not entitled to protection under U.S. law. Neither his family nor attorney were initially notified of the move.

Padilla was subsequently held, without formal charges being issued against him, for three and a half years. So much for habeus corpus.

On November 22, 2005, Padilla was finally indicted facing allegations that he “conspired to murder, kidnap and maim people overseas.”

Prosecutors claim that Padilla, 36, and co-defendants Adham Amin Hassoun and Kifah Wael Jayyousi, both 45, were part of a North American terror cell that supplied money, fighters and military equipment to extremist groups, including al-Qaeda, in Afghanistan, Somalia, Bosnia and Chechnya.

Prosecutor Brian Frazier claimed that Padilla filled out a form to attend an al-Qaeda training camp in 2000. Padilla’s attorneys say he traveled overseas to study Islam and Arabic in Egypt, not join al-Qaeda.

shout it