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Former Iraqi diplomat's son pleads not guilty
From Phil Hirschkorn
NEW YORK (CNN) -- A son of Iraq's former deputy ambassador to the United Nations pleaded not guilty Monday to federal charges he acted illegally as an agent of a foreign government and helped track down Iraqi dissidents in the United States. Raed Al-Anbuke, 30, is accused of acting for the past two years as an agent of Saddam Hussein's government without prior notification to the U.S. Justice Department, as the law requires. According to a two-count indictment obtained last week by the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, Al-Anbuke told an Iraqi intelligence officer the whereabouts of Iraqi expatriates in the United States and arranged a meeting between the agent and one dissident family. The original criminal complaint said Al-Anbuke, who has been in custody since March 25, had contacts with five Iraqi intelligence agents posted to the Iraqi U.N. mission as counselors or guards. The complaint said Iraq's intelligence service, the Mukhabbarat, typically "located, intimidated, and killed Iraqi defectors and dissidents living abroad." In addition to criminal charges, he faces immigration violations for overstaying a State Department-issued visa that became invalid when his father left the United States in August 2000. Prosecutor Ed Callahan told U.S. District Judge Michael Mukasey the evidence against Al-Anbuke includes the defendant's own statements to authorities before his arrest and transcripts of wiretapped telephone conversations. The complaint said a videotape showed Al-Anbuke socializing with the suspected agents during a Saddam Hussein birthday party in New York two years ago. Defense attorney Thomas Nooter said he plans to file a motion for a diplomatic immunity defense. Two brothers and a sister who entered the United States with Al-Anbuke and lived with him in Brooklyn remain detained on immigration charges. Nooter said the youngest of the siblings has been granted voluntary departure and is expected to leave the country shortly. Al-Anbuke's next court appearance will be September 5. "He's more resolved to have himself be exonerated," Nooter said. Al-Anbuke, who aspired to be a model, worked at a Manhattan dry cleaner. His father, Rohan Al-Anbuke, is back in Iraq working on a committee to reformulate the country's foreign ministry. "He's innocent," said the father in an interview with CNN in Baghdad last month. The government claims the elder Al-Anbuke worked covertly for Iraqi intelligence when he was posted to the Iraqi mission.
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