U.S. Detainee's Transfer Blocked

Attorneys Cite Fear of Torture

An American citizen who was captured in Iraq and is being held for trial there is a close associate of Abu Musab Zarqawi, was harboring foreign terrorists in Baghdad and was plotting kidnappings, according to documents filed in federal court by the Justice Department.

Shawqi Omar, a naturalized U.S. citizen who also has Jordanian citizenship, was captured in October 2004 and has been held in the U.S.-run detention system in Iraq while he awaits proceedings in Iraqi courts. Omar's attorneys filed a motion in U.S. District Court in Washington last week asking a judge to block his transfer to Iraqi custody for fear that he will be tortured. Judge Ricardo M. Urbina temporarily blocked the transfer on Friday.

Omar's attorneys argued that their client was a businessman seeking opportunities in Iraq after Baghdad fell, but U.S. authorities wrote in court documents that Omar is suspected of working with foreign terrorists and aiding insurgents in Iraq. When he was captured, Omar was allowing four Jordanian fighters and an Iraqi insurgent to live in his home, and he was found with several weapons and bomb-making materials, according to the documents.

"Each of the five detainees captured with Mr. Omar admitted that while living in his home, they conducted surveillance of potential kidnap victims within Baghdad and they conducted weapons training in Fallujah," Justice Department lawyers said in a 36-page document filed on Tuesday. "The four Jordanians stated that Mr. Omar directed and participated in the insurgent cell activities of selection and surveillance of potential kidnap victims."

Maj. Gen. John D. Gardner, who runs the detention operations in Iraq, said in a written statement to the court that Omar has links to the terrorist network in Iraq headed by Zarqawi "and is believed to have acted as al Zarqawi's personal emissary to insurgent groups in several cities in Iraq."

The U.S. government disputes the assertion that Omar is in its custody. Justice Department lawyers say that the U.S.-led detention operation is a function of the multinational coalition in Iraq, and that U.S. courts have no jurisdiction over it.

U.S. authorities did not object to allowing the Iraqi government to charge Omar in November, and Omar is now awaiting court proceedings in the Central Criminal Court of Iraq, Gardner said.

Lawyers with the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University and the MacArthur Justice Center at the University of Chicago Law School argued that transferring him would result in his torture and that he deserves legal representation. Justice Department lawyers contended that the Iraqi court system allows representation at an appropriate stage in the judicial process.

Researcher Julie Tate contributed to this report.