Yemen: Accused shooter not tortured in prison - Business - Wire - Kentucky.com

Yemen: Accused shooter not tortured in prison - Business - Wire - Kentucky.com

The man accused of killing an Army private outside an Arkansas recruiting center never suffered torture or beatings while jailed on an immigration violation in Yemen, an official with the country's embassy said Friday.


Embassy spokesman Mohammed Albasha denied claims by Abdulhakim Muhammad's lawyer that abuse radicalized the man into becoming a terrorist. Instead, Albasha said, the once-idealistic college student from Tennessee found his own way to religious anger after converting to Islam in the wake of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

Muhammad's claims "are not credible because he is attempting to find any pretext to justify his violent actions, even those that are completely false," Albasha said in a statement to The Associated Press. "He was not subjected to torture that has driven him to become a terrorist against his own fellow American citizens. These allegations are absurd."

The 23-year-old Muhammad appeared briefly Friday in Little Rock District Court. Judge Alice Lightle formally appointed lawyer Jim Hensley, who raised the abuse claim on Thursday, to represent him.

Muhammad was silent during the hearing. He has pleaded not guilty to a capital murder charge in the death Monday of Pvt. William Long. Another soldier, Pvt. Quinton I. Ezeagwula, was wounded in the shooting. Hensley has said his client wants to hold a news conference with reporters or issue a statement to "explain himself."

Hensley had told the AP on Thursday that "hardened" Islamic terrorists inside the prison where Muhammad was held for four months indoctrinated him into their radical beliefs. He also said that while in prison he faced torture and beatings from jailers, prisoners or both that left him scarred.

Muhammad, born Carlos Bledsoe, traveled to Yemen in September 2007 and taught English in the port city of Aden with the British Council for about two months, Albasha said. Muhammad then traveled to San'a, the country's capital, and taught English classes while attending Arabic courses with a group known as The City Institute, the spokesman said.

Police arrested Muhammad on Nov. 14 for overstaying his visa and living illegally in the Middle Eastern nation, Albasha said. He was deported Jan. 29 to the U.S.

A law enforcement official previously told the AP that Muhammad was arrested and jailed for using a Somali passport. On Friday, Hensley acknowledged Muhammad had such a passport at the time of his arrest, but said it was only to remain in the country with his wife.

"Everybody there has a passport from somewhere else. Everybody overstays their visas," Hensley said. "That's where his life was. That's where his life was going to be."

Hensley said he wasn't surprised that Yemen denied the torture allegations. The country, a lawless and impoverished nation on the tip of the Arabian peninsula, is the ancestral home of Osama bin Laden's family. It was the scene of one of al-Qaida's most dramatic pre-9/11 attacks, the 2000 suicide bombing of the destroyer USS Cole off the Aden coast that killed 17 American sailors.

Hensley also disputed supposed Internet search records seized on a computer at Muhammad's Little Rock apartment, saying other people had accessed the secondhand computer. An FBI-Homeland Security intelligence assessment document obtained by the AP after the shooting suggested Muhammad may have considered targeting other locations, including Jewish and Christian sites. The FBI said he "conducted Internet searches related to different locations in several U.S. cities" including Atlanta, Little Rock, Louisville, Ky., Memphis, Tenn., New York and Philadelphia. Material seized from Muhammad's truck and apartment this week included guns, ammunition and Molotov cocktails.

Pulaski County Prosecutor Larry Jegley sent a letter to Hensley on Friday telling the lawyer that he wanted to seek a gag order in the case. Jegley said that request likely would be filed before a district judge Monday.

Long is scheduled to be buried Monday at the Arkansas State Veterans Cemetery.