LAWFUEL – The Legal Newswire – Prosecutors claimed that U.S. citizen Jose Padilla was the “star recruit” for a Florida terrorism support cell that sent the former dirty bomb suspect to an al Qaeda camp to learn how to kill.
A prosecutor told jurors in closing arguments on Monday that the high-profile terrorism case against Padilla and two co-defendants is expected to go to the jury on Tuesday.
All three face life in prison if convicted on charges that they provided material support for Islamist terrorist groups and conspired to murder, kidnap and maim people in Afghanistan, Chechnya, Bosnia and other countries from 1993 to 2001.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Brian Frazier told jurors that the three were associated with al Qaeda, “which is really just a murder conspiracy with a name.”
He said defendants Adham Hassoun and Kifah Jayyousi recruited and financed the training of Islamist fighters who plotted to kill anyone who opposed their plan to establish strict Taliban-style governments everywhere Muslims lived.
Hassoun recruited Padilla at a south Florida mosque both attended and arranged for him to go to an al Qaeda camp in Afghanistan, Frazier said.
“Training with al Qaeda was a crime because al Qaeda trained people to kill,” he said.
Wiretapped phone conversations between Padilla and Hassoun demonstrate that Padilla was patient and secretive, Frazier said.
