toledoblade.com -- The Blade ~ Toledo Ohio

A year ago this month, three local men were led into a federal courtroom in Toledo to face terrorism-related charges - allegations that led to convictions after a more than two-month jury trial.

Today, Mohammad Amawi, Marwan El-Hindi, and Wassim Mazloum still have not been sentenced for their crimes.

In the months since their June 13 conviction, the three have been in a federal prison awaiting sentencing.

Their attorneys have filed post-conviction motions and their co-defendants have been brought through court, causing the court to hold off setting sentencing dates.

And more work remains before those dates can be set.

"The fact that so much is at stake and the fact that there is such a wide range of discretion [in sentencing] prompts any good lawyer to take a look at this period of post-conviction and to see if there exist any avenues of post-conviction relief," said Dennis Terez, a Cleveland-based fed-eral public defender whose office handled Amawi's defense. "A lot is at stake in a very complicated case, and as an overlay, there is a lot of complicated law."

Amawi, El-Hindi, and Mazloum were convicted on two counts each of conspiring to kill or injure people in the Middle East - including U.S. soldiers in Iraq - and of providing support and resources to terrorists overseas. Amawi and El-Hindi also were found guilty on two counts of distributing information regarding explosives.

The trial involved hundreds of exhibits and 25 days of testimony - including 16 witnesses on behalf of the government and a total of eight witnesses on behalf of Mazloum and Amawi. El-Hindi did not call witnesses for his defense.

Each of the men, whose attorneys declined interviews on their behalf, could face up to life in prison.

Attorneys for El-Hindi and Amawi recently argued motions before U.S. District Judge James Carr, requesting new trials for their clients and for judgments of acquittal. To grant the motions for acquittal, Judge Carr, who presided over the case, would have to determine that the evidence for the convictions was insufficient and the jury somehow lost its way while deciding the case.

As part of their motion for a new trial, Amawi's defense lawyers argued that they were reappointed later in the case - in early 2008, about two years after the original indictment - and did not have the benefit of extensive analysis and review of the mountainous amount of evidence. In the 42-page motion, attorneys also pointed out their inability to have translators review the evidence, their inability to review evidence deemed classified by the government, and the contention that Amawi has been hindered in helping with his postconviction motions because of problems getting information to him in prison.

El-Hindi's attorneys argued not only entrapment by the government's key witness - a man who garnered hundreds of hours of recordings of the three men while working as an undercover informant - but also said the jury convicted El-Hindi "not based on the evidence against him, but instead on prejudicial evidence gratuitously assembled by the government in such a fashion as to inflame passions."

Judge Carr has not yet ruled on the motions.

Attorney Jeffrey Helmick, one of Mazloum's lawyers, said they made a "conscious decision" not to file post-trial motions. Instead, he said, Mazloum intends to appeal the conviction after he is sentenced by taking it to the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

"Mr. Mazloum continues to maintain that he is not guilty of the charges presented against him, and so he will be exercising his appellate right," Mr. Helmick said. "His issues were not appropriate for post-trial motions."

Because of the voluminous trial transcripts that accompany a lengthy trial, lawyers were given time to draft their motions. To each motion, the government's attorneys responded.

Also delaying setting a sentencing date was a pending case against Chicago cousins Khaleel and Zubair Ahmed, whose terrorism-related charges were connected to those of the three men. Set at one point to stand trial in February, the cousins pleaded guilty Jan. 15 to charges that they provided material support to terrorists and aimed to travel abroad in their quest to murder or maim U.S. military forces in Iraq or Afghanistan.

As a result of a binding agreement that led to the pleas, Zubair Ahmed could be sentenced to 10 to 10 1/2 years in federal prison, and Khaleel Ahmed could be sentenced to just under eight years to about 9 1/2 years in prison.

The convictions were among several terrorism-related cases that were resolved over the past year, Department of Justice spokesman Dean Boyd said. Cases continue to be filed, he added.

In February, a federal grand jury in the Central District of Illinois returned a two-count indictment charging Ali Saleh Kahlah al-Marri with providing material support to al-Qaeda and conspiring with others to provide material support to al-Qaeda.

"As you can see, terror prosecutions do continue and we continue to get convictions," said Mr. Boyd, who declined to comment on the Toledo case.

Attorneys involved in the case believe sentencings are likely to occur within a few months - perhaps a year after the convictions, in June. Helping the judge when handing down sentences will be the presentence reports, comprehensive histories of each defendant and the offense of which they've been convicted.

Among the inevitable disagreements between the government and the defense is whether the men should face a sentence elevated by what is known as "the terrorism enhancement." The enhancement, if deemed appropriate, could mean a life sentence.

Attorney Steve Hartman, who was on El-Hindi's defense team, pointed out that the sentencing guideline range provided to the judge is strictly advisory and that ultimately, how much time the men spend in prison is up to Judge Carr. He added that he would hope the judge would take note of the time in prison faced by the Ahmeds - between 8 and 10 1/2 years - when sentencing his client.

"I think it would be appropriate that the defendants each get different sentences depending on culpability," he said.

Mr. Terez said the time since the jury made its decision has given everyone involved in the case time to "look at the trial in a certain retrospective fashion." He said that while the findings of the jury remain firm, time "gives everyone a chance to step back and to see if any errors were made."

Contact Erica Blake at:
eblake@theblade.com
or 419-213-2134.

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