The suspect, Nazih Abdul-Hamed al-Ruqai, wearing sweat pants and a dark shirt, was advised of his rights by Judge Lewis A. Kaplan of Federal District Court.
David E. Patton, a federal public defender, entered a not-guilty plea on his behalf.
Mr. Ruqai, speaking through an Arabic interpreter, responded briefly to the judge’s questions, indicating that he understood his rights. A Koran belonging to Mr. Ruqai sat on the table in front of him.
A federal prosecutor, Nicholas J. Lewin, told the judge that Mr. Ruqai “presents a clear danger to the community,” and was a flight risk. The judge ordered Mr. Ruqai detained pending trial.
Mr. Ruqai was indicted in Manhattan in 2000 on conspiracy charges stemming from Al Qaeda’s 1998 bombings of two United States Embassies in East Africa, which killed 224 people. He had been a fugitive for years, and was seen as potentially possessing a wealth of intelligence information about Al Qaeda, from its earliest days to the present.
Mr. Ruqai, who is known as Abu Anas al-Libi, was captured by United States commandos in Tripoli, Libya, on Oct. 5. He spent a week in military custody aboard a Navy ship in the Mediterranean.
On Saturday, Mr. Ruqai was abruptly transferred into the criminal justice system after his chronic health problems worsened aboard the ship, where he had stopped eating and drinking. That led a doctor on the vessel to recommend taking him to a hospital, officials have said. It was not yet clear whether that move was a hunger strike intended to bring the interrogation to an end, or was motivated by some other factor.
While Mr. Patton represented Mr. Ruqai at the proceeding in Manhattan, a new lawyer is expected to be appointed because the defender’s office had represented another defendant in the same indictment years ago. Last week, Mr. Patton asked the judge to appoint counsel for Mr. Ruqai while he was in military detention, but the request was denied.
“We are pleased that the government has now brought him into federal court and appointed him an attorney,” Mr. Patton said after the proceeding. “We continue to believe that the government should have done so earlier in accordance with federal law.”
“The presumption of innocence is not a small technicality here,” he added.
Mr. Patton said Mr. Ruqai was mentioned only briefly in a 150-page indictment, relating to conduct in 1993 and 1994.
He also said there were no allegations in the charges “that he had any connection to Al Qaeda after 1994, and he is eager to move forward with the legal process in this case.”
Prosecutors declined to comment.
Judge Kaplan also signed an order concerning medical treatment for Mr. Ruqai, who is being held at the Metropolitan Correctional Center. Mr. Ruqai’s son has said that Mr. Ruqai has a strain of hepatitis. Officials said that upon his arrival in the United States, he was taken to a medical center and his condition improved.
Yahoo Local News – New York Times
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