A lawyer for a former John F. Kennedy International Airport cargo handler accused of plotting to blow up the airport is asking that his client get an examination by a psychologist while in prison. Russell Defreitas, 65, cannot read and has impaired analytical abilities, his lawyer, Andrew Carter, said at a hearing in U.S. District Court in Brooklyn yesterday.

Mr. Defreitas, an American citizen of Guyanese origin, is one of four Muslim men arrested last month on charges of conspiring to blow up JFK airport and the fuel lines that feed into it. He pleaded not guilty last month.

Mr. Carter told Judge Dora Irizarry that Mr. Defreitas understands the charges for which he is being held, and said that the psychological examination would be used for internal purposes, not as part of his defense strategy.

Speaking to reporters afterwards, however, Mr. Carter said the “examination may or may not be used in his defense.”

Judge Irizarry said she “doesn’t see any reason” the request should not be granted.

Mr. Carter told reporters that he had to formally apply for the examination in court so that a psychologist could enter the prison in which Mr. Defreitas is being detained. Psychiatrists — medical doctors who can prescribe drugs — are usually mandated in court settings, he said. Psychologists usually have academic degrees.

A criminal defense attorney told The New York Sun it is likely that Mr. Carter is trying to determine the degree to which Mr. Defreitas is able to aid in his own defense.

Yesterday’s conference was Mr. Defreitas’s first appearance before the judge who will hear his case. The other three defendants in the case are in the process of being extradited from Trinidad and Tobago, which could take up to three months.