First Case Against Alleged Iraqi Insurgent Moves Forward
Prosecutors link him to roadside bombs; he asks court to drop charges.
October 21, 2008— -- He is accused of traveling to Iraq to aid the insurgency, making videos on how to use roadside bombs and planting them to blow up U.S. forces there. There is no doubt that the charges against this alleged terrorist -- an Iraq-born Dutch citizen -- are serious.
But there is also little secrecy surrounding the charges against Wesam al Delaema, whose case is now moving forward in U.S. federal court in Washington this week.
As the first alleged Iraqi insurgent to be tried in the United States, Delaema's case is something of a test for the court system, where this week the court began hearing testimony on what evidence will be permitted at trial and whether to dismiss the charges entirely.
Delaema's lawyers argue that the judge should dismiss the case because his alleged crimes occurred "under a regime of belligerent occupation by the forces of the United States military" and in violation of the Geneva conventions. His attorneys are also hoping the judge will bar evidence from wiretapping recordings by the Dutch police, which allegedly shows Delaema raging against the U.S. invasion and calling for the death of Americans.
Prosecutors argue that their case is on strong legal ground because the particular part of the Geneva Convention cited by the defense does not apply to Delaema. And, they argue, their evidence is solid and are expected to show video clips of Delaema's interrogation by Dutch authorities to try to prove he was never coerced during interrogation. At the hearing Monday, the government began with testimony from the Dutch prosecutor, M.J. Van Ling, who led the investigation in Delaema beginning in 2004.
Delaema first came onto Van Ling's radar when an intelligence report dropped on her desk in August 2004. The suspicion: that Delaema, who had returned from a trip to Iraq in May, was among the insurgents pictured in the video of the beheading of U.S. contractor Nicholas Berg.
Though Van Ling and her colleagues never found any evidence to support a link to Berg, that tip began a more than eight-month long investigation, which led to Delaema's arrest in May 2005.
