BOISE, Idaho, 15 March 2003 — A judge ruled Wednesday that a Saudi student who prosecutors say has ties to two radical Muslim activists will remain in custody while he awaits trial on visa fraud charges.
Sami Omar Al-Hussayen is accused of making false statements on student visa applications and helping set up websites to gather money for terrorism against Americans. He was arrested Feb. 26.
At a detention hearing, assistant US attorney Kim Lindquist said telephone taps and e-mails showed the University of Idaho graduate student was in close contact with Saudi activists Salman Al-Ouda and Safar Al-Hawali.
“The doctoral program that is the basis for him staying here is illusory at best, if nonexistent,” Lindquist said. “He has different philosophies. His paradigm is different.” Al-Hussayen has pleaded innocent to an 11-count federal indictment. He is set for trial on April 15.
In arguing for Al-Hussayen’s release, defense attorney David Nevin said his client would return to Moscow, Idaho, to work toward his degree in computer science.
Prosecutors said Tuesday that a computer which Al-Hussayen used had thousands of photographs, including the World Trade Center towers before and after the 2001 terrorism attacks.
Lindquist said Al-Hussayen had access to sensitive information through the university computer network.
But defense lawyer Nevin said in an interview that Al-Hussayen did not purposefully save the photographs found on the computer. Al-Hussayen’s faculty adviser, testifying on his behalf, said the images would automatically be saved on the computer’s hard drive if Al-Hussayen accessed them while surfing the Internet.
Nevin told the court that Al-Hussayen did not post inflammatory material, including calls for violence against the United States, on the websites, but merely administered the sites.
US Magistrate Mikel Williams said that the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) will be responsible for holding Al-Hussayen under house arrest until his trial.
Williams said Al-Hussayen must wear a monitoring device, allow authorities to listen to his phone calls and agree that his home can be searched at any time by law enforcement agents. — Additional input from The Washington Post
