Lawyers: Padilla Unable to Help Defense

MIAMI -- Jose Padilla's lawyers say the accused al-Qaida operative has mental problems stemming from his treatment during 3 1/2 years in solitary confinement and have asked a federal judge to decide whether he is competent to stand trial.

A psychiatrist and clinical psychologist who evaluated Padilla in September and October at his attorneys' request concluded independently that he has post-traumatic stress disorder and is unable to help his defense lawyers prepare adequately for trial.

"His reasoning is clearly impaired and paranoid tendencies are evident throughout the interviews," the psychiatrist, Dr. Angela Hegarty, said in a formal assessment filed late Wednesday in federal court. "Facial tics are prominent when he becomes distressed. He appears hypervigilant at times."

Padilla, a 36-year-old U.S. citizen, is scheduled to stand trial Jan. 22 along with two others in a terrorism support case. He claims he was tortured during his years in military custody at a naval brig in Charleston, S.C. He has asked U.S. District Judge Marcia Cooke to dismiss the Miami charges against him because of "outrageous government conduct" during his detention and interrogations.

Federal prosecutors have denied the torture allegations. But they agreed in court papers filed Wednesday that Cooke must determine Padilla's mental competence before ruling on the dismissal motion or other key pretrial issues. Otherwise, they said, any conviction could easily be thrown out on appeal.

Padilla was added to the Miami case late last year amid an intense legal battle over the extent of President Bush's wartime powers to detain U.S. citizens.

When he was originally arrested in 2002, Bush administration officials claimed Padilla was on an al-Qaida mission to detonate a radioactive "dirty bomb" in a major U.S. city, but the Miami indictment does not mention those allegations.

Padilla and co-defendants Adham Amin Hassoun and Kifah Wael Jayyousi are scheduled to stand trial Jan. 22. All have pleaded not guilty to charges that they were part of a support cell for Islamic extremists around the world.

The question of Padilla's competency makes it less likely that a trial will begin on time. Prosecutors also have asked a federal appeals court to reverse a previous decision by Cooke to dismiss a key terrorism charge because she found it duplicated other parts of the same indictment.

Cooke has scheduled a status hearing for Monday.