By LARRY MARGASAK, Associated Press
http://www.nandotimes.com/nation/story/434566p-3476183c.html
ALEXANDRIA, Va. (June 14, 2002 12:29 p.m. EDT) - U.S. authorities in Afghanistan failed to advise John Walker Lindh of his legal rights and ignored his pleas for a lawyer, defense attorneys contended Friday.
The lawyers are seeking to bar use of his statements in the trial of the American-born Taliban soldier.
The defense and the government have acknowledged that Lindh's statements last December were relied on heavily in his indictment, which charged him with conspiring to murder Americans and aiding the Taliban and al-Qaida. It could be a major setback to prosecutors should the motion succeed.
According to a criminal complaint filed in the case, Lindh told the FBI he personally met with Osama bin Laden at a training camp and learned from an instructor about June 2001 that bin Laden had sent people to the United States to carry out suicide operations.
The written pleading raised the unique issue of a U.S. citizen's rights when he's questioned abroad as a captured soldier and not yet brought into the criminal justice system.
Lindh's motion discounted his signature on a form waiving his rights to a lawyer when he was questioned by an FBI agent in Afghanistan. He was carried to the interrogation while blindfolded, shackled and bound to a stretcher after spending two days in a metal shipping container with neither heat nor light, the motion said.
Under the Supreme Court's "Miranda" decision, a suspect should be advised he has the right to remain silent, anything he says can be used against him in court, he has the right to have an attorney during questioning and a lawyer would be provided if he couldn't afford one.
Lindh asked for a lawyer on several occasions and was told by interrogators none were available, the motion said, adding he was not informed that his parents retained counsel for him in the United States.
Lindh was questioned by military interrogators between Dec. 1 and Dec. 8. "The law is clear that any statements elicited without Miranda warnings cannot be used against Mr. Lindh in this criminal proceeding," the motion said.
"The government does not contend that any warnings were provided to Mr. Lindh prior to Dec. 9, 2001. "Therefore, any statements allegedly made by Mr. Lindh ... prior to that date ... must be suppressed."
Statements made to the FBI on Dec. 9 and 10 should be thrown out, because the waiver was signed under "highly intimidating and coercive circumstances created by the government."
"He was sleep-deprived, malnourished, hungry and in pain, with a bullet and shrapnel still lodged in his body," the motion said. "Mr. Lindh reasonably perceived that only by signing the form could he hope for relief from the oppressive conditions of captivity."
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