Suspected al-Qaida operative fit to stand trial

A federal judge ruled today that suspected al-Qaida operative Jose Padilla is competent to stand trial on terrorism-support charges, rejecting arguments that he was severely damaged by three and a half years of interrogation and isolation in a military brig.

Padilla was in court when US District Judge Marcia Cooke announced her decision, but he showed no reaction.

“This defendant clearly has the capacity to assist his attorneys,” Cooke said just hours after she finished four days of competency hearings.

Padilla, (aged 36) a US citizen and Muslim convert, was arrested in 2002 in Chicago in what US authorities initially claimed was a mission to set off a radioactive “dirty bomb” in a major city. He was held without criminal charge after President George Bush declared him an enemy combatant.

Amid a legal clash over the president’s wartime detention powers, Padilla was added to a Miami terrorism support case in late 2005. That indictment does not mention the “dirty bomb” plot.

Defence attorneys and federal prosecutors declined to immediately comment on the judge’s ruling.

Padilla’s lawyers had asked Cooke to order that their client be treated for post-traumatic stress disorder, which they contend stems from years of isolation and interrogation while in military custody.

Cooke said testimony in the competency hearing showed that Padilla understands “legal nuances” of pre-trial motions and noted that he had signed a document verifying the truth of allegations made by the defense that he was tortured and mistreated during his years in a Navy brig in Charleston, South Carolina.

“At some time, the defendant was able to discuss some things with his lawyers,” Cooke said. “The defendant’s situation is unique. He understands that.”

Bush administration officials vehemently deny that Padilla was mistreated, and Cooke said her decision on competency should not be read as a ruling on those claims. “That discussion is for another day,” she said.

Padilla is charged along with two co-defendants with being part of a North American terror-support cell that provided money, recruits and supplies to Islamic extremists around the world. All three have pleaded not guilty and face possible life imprisonment.

A trial is set to begin April 16.