Judge orders Padilla's military jailers to testify

MIAMI, Feb 16 (Reuters) US military prison doctors and staff must testify in court about the treatment of suspected al Qaeda operative Jose Padilla while he was held by presidential order as an ''enemy combatant,'' a judge ruled yesterday.

US District Judge Marcia Cooke ordered a Pentagon lawyer and seven military and civilian prison employees to appear for questioning at a hearing on Thursday to determine if Padilla is mentally competent to stand trial on terrorism charges.

''Things happened to him at that place. It might be an entirely pleasant experience, I don't know,'' Cooke said.

Cooke ruled that since a psychiatrist's judgment that Padilla was fit to stand trial was based partly on conversations with doctors and staff at his military brig, their testimony was relevant for Padilla's mental competency hearing.

Padilla, a 36-year-old US citizen, is accused of being part of a North American support cell that provided money and recruits to global Islamist extremists. He is scheduled for trial in April on charges of conspiring to murder and maim people in foreign countries.

His lawyers say Padilla was tortured, drugged and psychologically damaged during the 3-1/2 years he was interrogated and held in ''extreme isolation'' at a military brig in South Carolina prior to being charged in the civilian court.

Prosecutors repeatedly insisted Padilla was not abused at the brig and that his treatment there was irrelevant to his trial and current mental state.

Two doctors who examined Padilla for the defence concluded he suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder that prevents him from assisting in his legal defence.

Most of the brig workers had refused, or been denied permission, to speak to defense lawyers, Padilla's attorney Anthony Natale said. Two years' worth of medical records from Padilla's time in the brig were also missing, Natale said.

Cooke voiced skepticism when a prosecutor told her that the government could not find one of the evidentiary tapes she had ordered them to give to Padilla's lawyers. She questioned how it ''just got mislaid.'' ''Do you understand why this is a little frustrating?'' she asked the prosecutor. ''Where could they be? Why would it be so hard?'' Padilla was arrested at O'Hare Airport in Chicago in May 2002 as he returned from a trip to Egypt and Pakistan.

President George W Bush ordered Padilla held by the military as an ''enemy combatant'' and the administration accused him of plotting to set off a radioactive bomb in the United States.

While a challenge to the president's authority to hold him without charges was pending in the Supreme Court, Padilla was indicted in Florida and transferred to civilian custody.

He was never charged with any bomb-related crimes but would face life in prison if convicted on the charges at his pending trial, which is expected to last four to six months.

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