An attorney for a Staten Island man accused of lying about his efforts to join a jihadist group in Pakistan wants a judge to keep his statements to FBI agents out of an upcoming trial.
Abdel Hameed Shehadeh intended to summon a defense lawyer during questioning by the feds in Hawaii late in 2010, but mistakenly believed that a federal prosecutor present at the interview was there to represent him, his attorney argues.
Shehadeh’s lawyer, Frederick Cohn, wrote to a Brooklyn federal judge requesting that his client’s potentially damaging statements be kept out of the impending trial.
Brooklyn federal prosecutors countered that following his arrest Shehadeh “signed two written Miranda waiver forms” acknowledging that he understood his constitutional rights, but he nevertheless decided to go ahead and talk to investigators.
Shehadeh “waived his Miranda rights because he wanted to attempt to talk his way out of trouble,” Assistant US Attorney James Loonam wrote to the judge, describing the defense attorney’s claims as “baseless” and arguing that the statements should be allowed at trial.
Shehadeh, a US citizen who was born and raised in New York, has been charged with three counts of making false statements in connection with a terrorism offense.
In several airport encounters with FBI agents in 2008, Shehadeh allegedly denied that his efforts to travel to the Middle East and southwest Asia stemmed from an interest in joining a jihadist group.
But Shehadeh – who operated Web sites calling for a holy war against the West – eventually admitted that if he had been successful in his effort to travel to Pakistan, he hoped to be tutored in “guerrilla warfare” and “bomb-making,” and – “without a doubt – he would have joined the Taliban,” prosecutors say in court documents.
Also in 2008, Shehadeh appeared at the Times Square recruiting station and tried unsuccessfully to join the Army.
Officials believe that he intended to gain sophisticated US military training that he could later use to fight overseas with insurgent groups against US military forces.
Judge Eric Vitaliano has not yet ruled on whether Shehadeh’s statements to FBI agents can be introduced at his upcoming trial.
mmaddux@nypost.com