Ex-prosecutor indicted in botched terrorism case

CHICAGO, Mar 30 (Reuters) A former federal prosecutor and a special agent with the State Department were charged with concealing evidence to win convictions against Muslim men in a terrorism case that was later tossed out.

The indictment, returned by a grand jury in Detroit where the case originated a week after the September.11 attacks, yesterday charged that prosecutor Richard Convertino and State Department special agent Harry Smith III conspired to withhold photographs of a Jordanian hospital they said was a target of the terror suspects.

In fact, the sketches found in the men's dingy apartment on September. 17, 2001, did not resemble the hospital at all, the indictment said.

That and other problems with the June 2003 convictions of three of four defendants led a judge to throw out the convictions, creating a huge embarrassment for the Bush administration's declared war on terrorism.

Two of the four, Abdel-Ilah Elmaroudi, the suspected ringleader, and Karim Koubriti, both Moroccans, were found guilty of the most serious charges -- conspiracy to provide material support for terrorism.

Ahmed Hannan, also Moroccan, was found guilty of a lesser charge of document fraud. The fourth defendant, Algerian Farouk Ali-Hamoud, was acquitted.

The indictment charged Convertino, 45, and Smith, 49, with conspiracy, obstruction of justice and making false declarations. Convertino was also charged with obstruction of justice in a separate Michigan case involving a drug defendant's sentencing. He faces up to 30 years in prison and a 1 million dollars fine. Smith faces up to 20 years and a 750,000 dollars fine.

Convertino has sued the Justice Department and then-Attorney General John Ashcroft for releasing private information he said had damaged his reputation.

In the suit, he said the department offered little support to his prosecution of the supposed ''sleeper'' cell, providing a single FBI agent, while officials in Washington hailed the arrests as having defused a potential terror attack.

Convertino told The New York Times, ''These charges are clearly vindictive and retaliatory, and it's an effort to discredit and smear someone who tried to expose the government's mismanagement of the war on terrorism.'' REUTERS CH BST1110