DALLAS (AP) - Lawyers for a Jordanian man charged with trying to blow up a Dallas skyscraper plan to depose witnesses in Jordan who know the suspect.
U.S. District Judge Barbara M.G. Lynn granted a motion from Hosam Smadi's attorneys that permits them to question their client's Jordanian relatives and associates, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram reported Wednesday. The defense team said the witnesses would portray the 20-year-old as a mentally ill man entrapped by federal agents.
Lynn granted the motion despite opposition from prosecutors. Depositions must take place between March 22 and April 9.
Authorities accuse Smadi of leaving what he thought was a truck bomb in a garage beneath the 60-story Fountain Place building in downtown Dallas in September. The device was a decoy provided by FBI agents posing as al-Qaida operatives.
The FBI said it had been monitoring Smadi after discovering him on an extremist Web site last year. Investigators have said the teenager acted alone and was not affiliated with any terrorist organizations.
In court papers, Smadi's attorneys said they believed the depositions would show that Smadi "grew up in a religiously tolerant environment in Ajloun, Jordan; that he went to a Christian school, attended Christian services, sang Christian hymns; that his parents taught him that God loves all people regardless of religions."
His federal public defenders argue that Smadi exhibited signs of depression and mental illness when his parents separated and that he "completely fell apart" when his mother died of brain cancer.
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Information from: Fort Worth Star-Telegram
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