TMCnet News
Juries ponder 2 terror cases(Sacramento Bee, The (CA) (KRT) Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge) Apr. 15--Two Sacramento federal court juries spent Friday in deliberations and adjourned for the Easter weekend without a verdict in dual trials of a Lodi father and son on terrorist-related charges. It was the first full day of deliberations for the jury weighing evidence against Umer Hayat, a 48-year-old ice cream truck driver charged with lying to the FBI to conceal his son's terrorist training in Pakistan and his own firsthand knowledge of such training. The jury spent the afternoon back in the courtroom viewing for the second time the videotaped interrogation of Hayat by FBI agents in June, just before he was arrested and jailed. There are approximately six hours of questioning on the video, and the jurors will finish watching it Monday when they resume their deliberations. During the interrogation, Hayat said he had earlier lied when he denied his 23-year-old son, Hamid Hayat, attended a terrorist training camp. He told the agents he visited four such Pakistani camps strictly as an observer in 2004, including the one where his son had trained. Umer Hayat's attorney, Johnny Griffin III, argued to the jury Thursday that agents played mind games with his client and manipulated him to where he was willing to tell the agents what they wanted to hear. The jury weighing the evidence against Hamid Hayat will be in a neighboring courtroom Monday viewing the videotaped interrogation of the younger Hayat by FBI agents on the same weekend in June that his father was questioned. It will be the second time the jury has viewed the tape. There are approximately four hours of questioning on that video. Friday was the second full day of deliberations for the jury in the prosecution of Hamid Hayat, who is charged with providing material support to terrorism by undergoing training and returning to Lodi from Pakistan in May prepared to commit acts of violence against the United States as an enemy of Islam. He is also charged with initially lying to FBI agents to conceal his conduct. Prosecutors contend the younger Hayat was awaiting orders on what his targets would be when he and his father were arrested and jailed. Hamid Hayat admitted during his interrogation that he went to a camp and received firearms training. But his attorney, Wazhma Mojaddidi, argued to the jury Wednesday the so-called confession is so full of nonsensical, contradictory and inconsistent statements by her client that it is worthless in the government's quest to convict Hayat. |