COLUMBUS, Ohio—A man the government says plotted to blow up a shopping mall wants to call convicted terrorist Iyman Faris as a witness on his behalf.
Nuradin Abdi says Faris will testify that Abdi, charged with conspiring to support terrorists, is guilty at most of being angry at U.S. foreign policy. Abdi’s trial is scheduled to begin next month in federal court in Columbus.
Prosecutors say Abdi, 35, a Somali immigrant living in Columbus, wanted to bomb an unspecified Columbus-area shopping mall. The alleged plot was never carried out.
Abdi is charged with conspiring to provide support to terrorists and specifically to al-Qaida and to using false travel documents. If convicted, he could get up to 80 years in prison.
Faris, 38, is serving a 20-year prison term in a maximum-security federal prison in Florence, Colo., for a plot to destroy the Brooklyn Bridge.
At the heart of the government’s case against Abdi is a meeting prosecutors say Abdi, Faris and a third terror suspect, Christopher Paul, had at a suburban Columbus coffee shop in August 2002.
Prosecutors charge that Abdi suggested they “could attack the mall with a bomb,” according to court documents.
Faris will testify that Abdi said angry things that day but was talked out of taking any action and never conspired with any terrorists, Mahir Sherif, Abdi’s attorney, said Thursday. He notified the government he intended to call Faris in a court filing late Wednesday.
A message was left with the U.S. Attorney’s Office. Faris has always said there was nothing to Abdi’s remarks that day, said David Smith, Faris’ former attorney.
