Accused of terrorism, soccer player is ‘a free man’ but still in limbo

The government says he should go to his home country of Tunisia, where he faces another 10-year prison sentence. His attorneys say he should go to Belgium, where his wife and her children are, and in the meantime no longer be treated as if he was guilty.

The shoe bomber testified in his defense. He was acquitted.

Trabelsi is “a free man,” defense attorney Sabrina Shroff said in court Monday. “He should not be shackled anymore … he should not be held” under “Special Administrative Measures,” an extremely restrictive form of solitary confinement often imposed often on terrorism suspects.

“He would like to speak to his wife, he’d like to speak to his children and he’d certainly like to speak to his counsel in Europe,” she said.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Thomas Saunders told the court Trabelsi should be picked up from jail within 48 hours by Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Saunders said he assumed Trabelsi would then be sent to his home country of Tunisia, where he was convicted in absentia of belonging to a terrorist group and sentenced to 10 years in prison.

Shroff responded that “the government well knows” Trabelsi cannot be sent to Tunisia or any third country without Belgian approval, the Belgian government has asked for Trabelsi to be returned to Europe, and “Mr. Trabelsi has repeatedly indicated that he will tortured if he is sent back to Tunisia.”

Both Saunders and Judge Randolph Moss said that whatever happens to Trabelsi in immigration custody is beyond their jurisdiction. Shroff said she is seeking pro bono immigration counsel for further assistance.

Ashley Deeks, a law professor at the University of Virginia who previously dealt with international extradition as a legal adviser to the State Department, said she knew of no other case where someone was brought to the U.S. to face trial and acquitted.

“The amount of resources it takes to get somebody here through extradition is high,” she said. “The United States only seeks to extradite people when it’s confident it will achieve a conviction. I suspect the government was surprised by this result.”

Dennis Fitzpatrick, a former federal prosecutor who handled multiple cases involving defendants extradited from abroad, said that possibility is part of the calculation done by the Justice Department’s National Security Division in deciding on charges for foreign nationals.

“His status as a non-U.S.citizen, with no ties to the U.S., would definitely go into that risk analysis,” he said.

Trabelsi moved to Germany in 1989 to play soccer; he then lived in several places, including Afghanistan, before landing in Belgium in the summer of 2001. That September, two days after the World Trade Center attacks, he was arrested, accused and convicted of planning a follow-on bombing in Europe at a base that houses both Belgian and American soldiers. After 10 years in prison there, he was sent to the U.S. to face similar charges; for the past decade he has been arguing from pre-trial detention that his extradition was illegal.

European courts agreed, ruling that he never should have been sent to the U.S. because of the risk of inhumane treatment and because he was being tried twice for the same crimes. Last year the Belgian government was ordered to ask for his return. American courts rejected his appeals. But on Friday, after a six-week trial during which Trabelsi testified about his long confinement, a jury acquitted him on all charges.

“Mr. Trabelsi wishes to return to Belgium,” Shroff said in a statement after court. “I am shocked that the government would say he will be sent to Tunisia knowing full well that Mr. Trabelsi would be tortured as would be his family.”

Dounia Alamat, who represents Trabelsi in Belgium, said they are asking the Belgian authorities “to be proactive in obtaining Mr. Trabelsi’s return.”