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Lindh Lawyers Say Statements Weren't Legal
Saturday, June 15, 2002
(12:00 AM)
The Associated Press

The defense motion raised the unique issue of a U.S. citizen's rights when he's questioned abroad as a captured soldier and not yet brought under the criminal justice system. Normally, combatants in U.S. military custody aren't American citizens.

ALEXANDRIA, VA -- AP
U.S. officials ignored John Walker Lindh's legal rights in Afghanistan and statements the U.S.-born Taliban soldier made there should be kept from his trial, defense lawyers said Friday.

The written pleading said several U.S. interrogators failed to advise Lindh of his right to counsel, took no action when he requested a lawyer and never told him his parents had hired an attorney for him in the United States.

During an FBI interrogation after his capture, Lindh signed a statement waiving his right to counsel, but only in hopes it would help him escape horrendous conditions of confinement, the lawyers said.
(More: The San Antonio Express News Source)
2002 © The Associated Press.

Dan