by TChris

When the government's only witness in a criminal prosecution is a dead terrorist, the government might want to rethink its decision to prosecute. But the absence of reliable evidence that a crime was committed doesn't stop the Justice Department, which is asking a judge to detain Ahmed Omar Abu Ali without bail despite its apparent inability to prove its case.

Abu Ali was arrested in Saudi Arabia, where he had gone to study. His detention without charges in Saudi Arabia eventually provoked a lawsuit by his family against the United States on the ground that the U.S. engineered his arrest and continuing detention and acquiesced in his torture. The lawsuit evidently persuaded the government to bring Abu Ali to the United States so it could pursue terrorism charges against him. An indictment was unsealed this week in Virginia.

The government claims that Abu Ali discussed the assassination of President Bush while in Saudi Arabia, but the only witness to that alleged discussion was killed by Saudi authorities 17 months ago. The absence of evidence didn't stop the government from seeking to continue Abu Ali's detention without bail after his return to the United States. Even if it prevails in that request, the prosecution may ultimately be doomed.

[Federal] officials said they worried that the prosecution, by relying on information from overseas intelligence sources, could become bogged down in legal difficulties like those that have stalled the trial of Zacarias Moussaoui, and could also become overshadowed by allegations from Mr. Abu Ali's family that he was tortured in Saudi custody with the knowledge of American officials. A federal terrorism prosecutor at the Justice Department said the defense is almost certain to raise accusations that the testimony of foreign detainees was tainted by alleged torture. The prosecutor added, "I think it's going to make it very difficult for the government to make its case."