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since Wed, 26 Dec 2007 20:04:17.
Deliberations to continue in Atlanta terror trial
By MEGAN MATTEUCCI, Atlanta
A Roswell mother will have to wait another night to learn if her son will spend years in prison for helping overseas terrorists. A jury spent three hours deliberating Tuesday afternoon on the case of Ehsanul Islam Sadequee and did not reach a verdict. The jury of nine men and three women is scheduled to return for a second day of deliberations at 9 a.m. Wednesday.
"They have not been kind to my son. I don't think it will be good," Shirim Sadequee said Tuesday after listening to closing arguments.
Her 23-year-old son gave his closing argument in his own trial in U.S District Court in Atlanta. He told jurors he's not guilty of the four counts he is accused of, including conspiring to help terrorists wage a violent jihad. If convicted, he faces 60 years in prison.
"Actions speak louder than words," Sadequee told the jury. "You need to look at what is actually done."
Sadequee, who is representing himself, dismissed the bulk of evidence presented by prosecutors, including e-mails and online chats with overseas terrorists.
"What the chats do demonstrate quite clearly is we are immature young guys who had imaginations that run wild," Sadequee said. "But I was not then, and I'm not now, a terrorist,"
Federal prosecutors say those talks were real.
They included talks about joining terrorist groups, including the Taliban, Al Qaeda and Lashkar-e-Tayyiba. They include talks about obtaining weapons, hiding from police and planning attacks, Assistant U.S. District Attorney Robert McBurney said.
"These guys didn't kid around," McBurney told the jury.
Prosecutors say Sadequee also arranged for his friend Syed Haris Ahmed – who was convicted in June – to go to Pakistan to meet with a terrorist recruiter. They also say Sadequee sent homemade videos of Washington landmarks to a convicted terrorist.
"The evidence is overwhelming," McBurney said.
Sadequee dismissed his court-appointed attorney last week on the first day of the trial. On Tuesday, he asked jurors to forgive him for his nerves and unfamiliarity with the court process.
"It's not as easy as you see on Law & Order" he told the jury.
None of the jurors laughed.
His mother, who initially begged her son to use the attorney, sat through the proceedings saying prayers. She claims the government destroyed some of her son's evidence, damaging her son's case.
The defendant ended his closing argument with a prayer. "I hope God assists you in making the correct and just decision," he said.
