Algeria Millennium Bomb Plotter Broke Conditions of His Release, U.S. Says
An Algerian man convicted in a foiled millennium plot to bomb Los Angeles International Airport in late 1999 is scheduled to appear in court today on charges he broke the conditions of his supervised release.
U.S. prosecutors plan to use “foreign intelligence” evidence against him, according to court records.
Abdelghani Meskini, who pleaded guilty to planning an attack to take place during New Year’s celebrations in 1999, will appear before a federal judge in New York, according to the court docket. Meskini, who cooperated with prosecutors, was sentenced in January 2004 to six years in prison, including time he’d already served, and ordered to pay $59,000 in restitution.
Now known as Eduardo Rocha, Meskini was arrested in Georgia on March 24, accused of nine violations of his federal supervised release, court records show. Prosecutors didn’t specify what the alleged violations were.
Evidence proving that Meskini violated his release terms was collected in a “physical search” using the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, according to a court filing yesterday by prosecutors in the office of Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara. The government didn’t specify what the information was.
The so-called millennium plot was thwarted when Ahmed Ressam, another Algerian, was arrested on Dec. 14, 1999, while transporting explosives across the U.S.-Canadian border near Seattle.
$3,000 in Cash
Prosecutors said fellow Algerian Mokhtar Haouari provided Ressam with $3,000 in cash and a fake Canadian driver’s license. Haouari was also accused of arranging for Meskini to travel to Seattle to help Ressam after he crossed the border.
Meskini cooperated with the government and testified against Haouari at a 2001 federal trial in Manhattan. Ressam testified they intended to bomb the Los Angeles airport with explosives in suitcases.
Meskini was sentenced to six years in prison. Haouari was convicted and sentenced to 24 years in prison. Ressam was sentenced to 22 years. In February, a federal appeals court ruled that Ressam needed to be re-sentenced because the original term was too short.
A transcript of an April 23 hearing after Meskini’s arrest in Georgia quotes his former lawyer, Isabelle Kirshner, saying that he applied and was denied entry to the federal witness protection program.
Witness Protection
Cooperating federal witnesses whose lives are deemed to be in danger because of their assistance are often moved to another area and given new identities by the U.S.
“Mr. Meskini is here on several alleged violations of supervised release,” U.S. District Judge John Keenan said at the April hearing, according to the transcript. “His big problem is, as I understand it, that is if he’s deported, his country of origin is Algeria. Physically, he might be in jeopardy in Algeria.”
On July 1, Keenan assigned lawyer Mark DeMarco to represent Meskini, according to a court transcript. DeMarco couldn’t immediately be reached for comment after regular business hours.
The case is U.S. v. Abdelghani Meskini, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York (Manhattan).
To contact the reporter on this story: Patricia Hurtado in New York at pathurtado@bloomberg.net.
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