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1993-04-16
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April 14, 1993
INMATE OFFERED A DEAL TO LIE ABOUT TRADE CENTER BLAST - LAWYER
By Jeanne King, AP
NEW YORK, April 13, Reuter - The FBI offered to have a
convicted murderer's sentence reduced if he lied and said he
overheard two men plotting the bombing of the World Trade Centre, a
civil rights lawyer charged on Tuesday.
The men are El Sayyid Nosair, who was convicted of lesser
charges in the killing of radical Israeli rabbi Meir Kahane in 1991,
and Muhammad Salameh, a suspect in the bombing.
"The FBI is desperately trying to get something that would put
Nosair at the centre of their large hypothetical conspiracy," said
lawyer William Kunstler.
He represents Khadijah Nosair, the wife of Nosair, who is
serving seven to 22 years at the state prison in Attica, New York.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) did not return
repeated telephone calls for comment and a spokesman for the state
Correction Department said, "We can not comment on an FBI
investigation."
Kunstler told Reuters the FBI offered the deal to Abd-allah
Kasiem, 37, a black Moslem and jailhouse lawyer, who was helping
Nosair with his appeal.
Kasiem is serving two consecutive life sentences for murder and
was at Attica until six months ago, when he was transferred to the
state prison in Comstock, New York.
Last week, FBI agents visited him and proposed the deal,
Kunstler said.
He said that after the trade centre bombing on February 26, in which six
people were killed and over 1,000 injured, Nosair was placed in solitary
confinement.
A short time later, Kasiem also was placed in solitary
confinement and accused of conspiring with Nosair to escape from
Attica, he said. According to Kasiem, the FBI offered him money and
said it would arrange to have his sentence reduced and to have him
released from solitary confinement if he would lie and say he
overheard Salamah and Nosair plotting the bombing in the Attica
visiting room, Kunstler said. "Kasiem was threatened that if he
didn't cooperate, they would make his life a living hell," he said.
Prison authorities accused Nosair of trying to escape after
agents found five forged Nicaraguan passports in the name of Nosair
and his family on Ibrahim Elgabrowny, 42.
Elgabrowny was arrested on March 4, the same day as Salameh,
for allegedly assaulting two federal investigators. He is Nosair's
cousin and a mentor to the family.
Elgabrowny, Salameh, and two other susupects, Mahmud
Abouhalima, the alleged mastermind of the bombing, and Nidal Ayyad,
a chemical engineer, have all visited Nosair in prison.
Kunstler said that after the visit by the FBI, Kasiem revealed
the information about the deal and his fears to a member of the
Moslem Council of Imams who works at the prison.
The lawyer said he is convinced that authorities want to get
any inmate to say that Nosair confessed to them about the bombing.
"It's all part of a scheme by the government to flesh out a
mythical conspiracy," he said.
Mrs Nosair told Reuters her Egyptian-born husband is totally
blameless and the U.S. government is turning simple friendships into
a web of conspiracy.