Mall Terror Suspect Nuradin Abdi

(Columbus, Ohio) After drawing attention to himself by bragging that he was going to blow up a shopping mall, Nuradin Abdi was arrested by federal agents in November 2003 on immigration violations. Subsequently, he was indicted for conspiring with al-Qaeda operative Iyman Faris to detonate a bomb at a Columbus-area shopping mall. Faris is currently enjoying a 20-year stretch in federal prison after pleading guilty to conspiring in the failed plot to blow up the Brooklyn Bridge.

At a hearing yesterday before U.S. District Judge Algenon Marbley, Abdi's defense lawyers asked the court to dismiss the case due to misconduct by the U.S. government. In what could be called an "Abu Ghraib by proxy" defense, Abdi's lawyers contend that the U.S. government caused Abdi to go insane because of the way prisoners were treated in Iraq. As such, the defense asked that all of Abdi's statements to investigators be excluded from the case which is scheduled to be tried next month.

Judge Marbley said he would rule on the defense's motion within two weeks.


[Update 08/02/07]

Abdi sentenced.