Detroit: North African Man Falsely Convicted for "Terrorism" Released

12:08 AM EDT

Detroit Terror Defendant Released

DETROIT (Oct. 12) - A man whose conviction on charges of
conspiring to support terrorism was dismissed after the U.S.
attorney's office admitted prosecutorial misconduct was
released to a halfway house Tuesday.

Karim Koubriti, 26, was released on $100,000 bail after his
lawyers found donors to pay the nearly $500 monthly cost of
an electronic tether, defense attorney James Gerometta said.

An elated Koubriti, who awaits a retrial on fraud charges,
smiled and joked with his lawyers as he left the courthouse.

"I am innocent. I always say I was innocent for the last
three years. Nobody believed me," he told reporters. "It's
too late. This should have happened three years ago."

Koubriti will not be permitted to leave the Detroit-area
halfway house and will have to wear a Global Positioning
System tether that enables authorities to monitor his
location around the clock.

Koubriti and Abdel-Ilah Elmardoudi, 38, both of Morocco, were
convicted last year of conspiring to provide material support
and resources to terrorists and document fraud. A third
defendant, 36-year-old Ahmed Hannan, was convicted only of
document fraud. A fourth man was acquitted.

Last month, the U.S. attorney's office admitted widespread
prosecutorial misconduct in the 2003 trial and asked U.S.
District Judge Gerald Rosen to dismiss the terrorism charges
against Koubriti and Elmardoudi and retry them, and Hannan,
on document fraud charges.

Rosen ordered new trials, but hasn't set a date.


10/12/04 23:46 EDT

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