A US federal grand jury handed down a 10-count indictment against "American Taliban" John Walker Lindh on Tuesday, while his lawyers argued he should be released until trial.
A 12-member federal grand jury found Walker to be "an al-Qaeda-trained terrorist who conspired with the Taliban to kill his fellow citizens," Attorney General John Ashcroft said.
The indictment formalized six charges already outlined in the federal government's criminal complaint against Walker and added four new ones.
The new charges are conspiracy to contribute services to al-Qaeda, contributing services to the network, conspiracy to supply services to the Taliban, and using and carrying firearms and destructive devices during crimes of violence.
Walker had already been charged with conspiracy to murder US citizens or US nationals, two counts of conspiracy to provide support and resources to designated foreign terrorist organizations, two counts of providing material support and resources to terrorist organizations, and one count of supplying services to the Taliban.
"If convicted of these charges Walker Lindh could receive multiple life sentences, six additional 10-year sentences, plus 30 years," said Ashcroft.
"The reasons for his choices may never be fully known to us, but the fact of these choices is clear. Americans who love their country do not dedicate themselves to killing Americans," he said.
The indictment charges that in the middle of last year, Walker was in an al-Qaeda training camp in Afghanistan. While there, he met with Osama bin Laden, chose to fight with the Taliban and "swore allegiance to jihad after being told that Osama bin Laden had sent some 50 people to carry out multiple suicide operations against the United States and Israel," Ashcroft said.
Walker remained in Afghanistan fighting with the Taliban after learning of the Sept. 11 attacks and "despite the knowledge that additional terrorist attacks and acts were planned," Ashcroft charged.
The charges were based in part on voluntary statements made by Walker himself, Ashcroft said, insisting that while in US custody "he has, by his own statements, been treated well."
"At each step in this process John Walker Lindh's rights -- including his rights not to incriminate himself and to be represented by counsel -- have been carefully, scrupulously honored."
Lawyers for Walker, who requested his release pending trial ahead of a detention hearing yesterday, told a different story.
In their request filed in federal court in Alexandria, Virginia, earlier Tuesday, attorneys argued that the charges against Walker based on his statements to the FBI were "insufficient to establish probable cause for the crimes charged."
"There are no allegations and no evidence that he ever so much as fired a shot" or even fought against the Northern Alliance forces that ousted the ruling Taliban, the attorneys said in the filing.
The 20-year-old has no criminal record, is unlikely to flee and poses no risk to society, they said.
"The affidavit presented by the government in support of the complaint doesn't even allege that Mr. Lindh has ever intended or attempted to harm any civilian," they wrote.
The lawyers complained that they had not been given access to the recordings or transcripts of their client's statements to the FBI, taken Dec. 9 and Dec. 10 during his detention at a US military base near Kandahar, Afghanistan.
For the three days prior to his FBI interrogation, he was held naked in an unheated metal shipping container, despite biting cold. He was blindfolded, with his hands and feet shackled, unable to sleep.
"His repeated requests for a lawyer" were ignored, they said.
"These highly coercive conditions, together with the government's failure to produce anything other than hearsay accounts of the statements, render the alleged statements highly unreliable," the lawyers said. "For all the reasons stated above, Mr. Lindh should be granted pre-trial release."
Walker was to make his second appearance in court for a preliminary detention hearing yesterday, a court source said.
The US-born convert to Islam was ordered held without bond in a brief court appearance Jan. 24.
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