Aug 8, 2006 1:53 pm US/Central
Defendant In Sears Tower Plot Denies Involvement
Prosecutors Claim Suspect Part Of Group's "Inner Circle"
MIAMI (AP) ―
One of seven men charged with plotting terrorist attacks on Chicago's Sears Tower sought to distance himself from the group and wanted nothing to do with such mass destruction, his attorney said Tuesday.
"He didn't like what was going on, did not want to be any part of it," defense lawyer Joel DeFabio said at a hearing on Lyglenson Lemorin's request for release on bail.
DeFabio added that Lemorin left Miami in the spring after members of the group pledged allegiance to the al-Qaida terrorist network, moving his two children and wife to Atlanta and taking a retail job under his own name.
"He made no effort to conceal his whereabouts. He did nothing to hide," DeFabio said.
Federal prosecutors, however, portrayed the 31-year-old Lemorin as part of the "inner circle" of followers of Narseal Batiste, who they claim sought to turn the group into an arm of al-Qaida that would try to blow up Chicago's Sears Tower and government buildings in major cities.
The group never obtained any explosives and never got beyond the preliminary planning stages, authorities said after their arrests in June. All seven have pleaded not guilty to a four-count terrorism conspiracy indictment and face trial in March.
Lemorin gave a statement to the FBI the day of his arrest making similar claims that he sought to get away from Batiste, a man who made him "do things he didn't want to."
Richard Getchell, an assistant U.S. attorney, said Lemorin was one of the select few allowed contact with a man Batiste believed was an al-Qaida operative sent to help the group formulate its plot but who was actually an FBI informant.
"His inner circle was allowed to meet with the informant, who they thought was from al-Qaida," Getchell said.
Lemorin also was the first of this key group to take the oath of allegiance to al-Qaida at a videotaped ceremony on March 16 at the group's headquarters in Miami's Liberty City neighborhood. Getchell said his decision to leave for Atlanta was more likely because he feared imminent arrest.
"We would say it's not a coincidence that Mr. Lemorin, after 16 years, sought to leave the area," Getchell said.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Barry Garber did not issue an immediate ruling on the bail request and scheduled a second hearing for Thursday. The other six defendants are being held without bail.
Lemorin is a legal permanent U.S. resident but could face deportation to Haiti even if he is not convicted of the terrorism charges, Getchell said. He lived in Haiti before coming to the U.S.
(© 2006 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
