Litigation

Federal Judge: Civilian Courts Can Handle Terror Cases

By Jason Barrett

A federal judge who sentenced 9/11 conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui to life in prison said Thursday that civilian courts are capable of trying terrorism cases, specifically cases involving Guantanamo detainees, the Associated Press reported.

U.S District Judge Leonie Brinkema said that the Mossaoui case proved that civilian courts have the ability to properly handle complex terrorism cases.  She made the remarks at a gathering at the University of Virginia Law School.

The government has repeatedly said that presenting classified evidence in a civilian court would constitute a national security risk, but Judge Brinkema disagreed, saying that the government’s reluctance to allow such evidence to be used is based more on avoiding embarrassment than protecting classified evidence.

“As embarrassing and as ugly as some of this information might be, it is not in my view national security information,” Judge Brinkema said.

Full post as published by The Gavel on April 03, 2009 (boomark / email).