Doctor’s Alleged Pledge Is Crux of Terror Case

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Rafiq Sabir, a Columbia University-trained doctor, has been kept in solitary confinement since he was arrested last year on charges that he swore fealty to Osama bin Laden in the presence of an undercover FBI agent.

Yesterday, in U.S. District Court in Manhattan, attorneys debated whether the unusual pledge Dr. Sabir allegedly made — an offer to treat wounded jihadists in Saudi Arabia — constituted a crime. The argument covered topics ranging from the Hippocratic Oath to the statute on material support of terrorism.

Dr. Sabir, of Boca Raton, Fla., is one of four men charged in a wide-ranging conspiracy to aid Al Qaeda and send money to jihadists in Afghanistan and Chechnya. The case is scheduled for trial sometime next year.

Dr. Sabir’s attorney, Edward Wilford, told the judge, Loretta Preska, that the defendant should not be prosecuted over the alleged pledge because a doctor has a right to help patients recover.

“It’s not as though he’s setting up a laboratory somewhere trying to find a way to make jihadists stronger,” Mr. Wilford said. “Does it make sense to have a statute that stops doctors from treating people?”

Judge Preska said a ruling on whether to dismiss the charges against Dr. Sabir would come later. She expressed skepticism at Mr. Wilford’s criticism of the law.

Whether the law makes sense “is a policy question” better left to Congress, Judge Preska said.

Judge Preska also did not seem swayed when Mr. Wilford pointed out that the material support of terrorism statute contains a specific exemption for providing medicine. Judge Preska seemed to interpret the exemption as pertaining only to pills and drugs, not medical care.

“It says medicine,” Judge Preska said. “It doesn’t say medical support or personnel.”

The prosecutor in the case, Karl Metzner, said Dr. Sabir’s pledge to aid wounded Al Qaeda operatives “was a completely different scenario” than the example of a doctor on call who treated a wounded jihadist who came to him looking for medical attention.


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