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Oct 14, 2009 12:07 pm US/Central
Judge Orders Dallas Bomb Suspect's Brother Held
DALLAS (AP) ―
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A judge has requested that Husein Smadi, the brother of Dallas bomb plot suspect Hosam Smadi (pictured), be held in federal custody for questioning by attorneys.
KTVT / KTXA
The teenage brother of a Jordanian man accused of trying to bomb a Dallas skyscraper is being held in California as a material witness in the case, officials said Wednesday.
Husein Smadi, 18, was transferred to the custody of the U.S. Marshals Service after being held by Immigration and Customs Enforcement in the San Francisco area, ICE spokeswoman Virginia Kice said. Under a court order, and he will remain in federal custody until Oct. 27 so he can be questioned under oath by attorneys for his brother, 19-year-old Hosam Smadi.
Richard Anderson, one of Hosam Smadi's attorneys, declined on Wednesday to discuss details of the planned deposition. But in a court filing, defense attorneys said Husein Smadi was a necessary and favorable witness in the case.
"Should Husein Smadi be deported ... it will be impractical if not impossible to secure his presence for trial," according to an affidavit by Dan James, the chief investigator in the case for the Federal Public Defender's Office.
The Smadi brothers entered the U.S. legally on a tourist visas in 2007, but both stayed after their visas expired. They settled in the Silicon Valley area and enrolled in high school. Hosam Smadi moved to a small town near Dallas last year while his brother remained in northern California.
The younger Smadi was arrested for possession of methamphatemine in northern California's Santa Clara County in August, then taken into ICE custody last month -- on the same day his brother was arrested in Dallas.
Husein Smadi told an immigration judge this month that he wanted to rejoin his father in Jordan. He requested an expedited removal from the U.S. and offered to pay his own ticket, but his deportation request was stayed by a federal judge in Dallas on Friday at the request of his brother's attorneys.
Jeff Carter, a spokesman for the U.S. Marshals Service, said Husein Smadi remained in San Francisco on Wednesday but wouldn't say whether he would be taken to Texas.
The Smadi brothers entered the United States legally on a tourist visas in 2007. But both stayed after the visas expired, settled in the Silicon Valley area and enrolled in high school. Hosam Smadi moved to a small town near Dallas last year while his brother remained in northern California.
Hosam Smadi is accused of planting what he believed to be a car bomb beneath a Dallas skyscraper last month. The device was a decoy provided by FBI undercover agents who had been keeping track of him.
His arraignment on one count of attempted use of a weapon of mass destruction and one count of bombing a place of public use was scheduled for Oct. 23. He was being held at a federal prison near Dallas.
(© 2010 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
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