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Chicago Tribune - January 4, 2007
Defense rests in Hamas funding trial
By Rudolph Bush
Defense attorneys for a Bridgeview man accused of being a leading member of the Palestinian extremist group Hamas rested their case in federal court Thursday after again putting the issue of torture squarely before jurors.
The trial of Muhammad Salah has hinged largely on whether he voluntarily confessed to Israeli authorities in 1993 that he was Hamas' military commander or if he was tortured into complying with whatever demands his captors made.
A Turkish psychiatrist, Dr. Metin Basoglu, sought to bolster the defense argument Thursday with testimony that anyone who suffers prolonged mistreatment at the hands of interrogators is "very likely" to comply with their demands.
An expert on the trauma of torture, Basoglu had no firsthand knowledge of Salah's treatment by Israeli interrogators.
Testifying via video from Istanbul, Basoglu said people with deep commitments to political or military causes are less likely than ordinary people to break quickly under torture.
"Would a militant commander of a resistance group immediately cooperate and continue to cooperate over a period of 54 days while being interrogated by military police?" defense attorney Erica Thompson asked, referring to the length of time Salah was under interrogation.
Basoglu could not answer the question after U.S. District Judge Amy St. Eve sustained a prosecution objection.
Still, he spoke for more than two hours about the effects of torture on the human mind.
Basoglu's testimony touched on many of the techniques Salah's lawyers claim were used to extract a confession that led to his conviction and 4-year imprisonment in Israel.
Such methods as sleep deprivation, hooding and being forced to sit handcuffed in a child-size chair were legal techniques in Israel during the time of Salah's detention, defense attorneys told jurors.
Prosecutors stipulated that those methods were indeed legal at the time.
Earlier in the trial, two Israeli interrogators who questioned Salah testified that he was treated well and provided detailed, high-level information about Hamas that was corroborated by other sources…..
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/custom/newsroom/chi-070104salah,1,2798699.story
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