Opinion ID: 4525962
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Deposition of Overseas Witness

Text: The Government’s case against Al-Farekh also included testimony by a former al-Qaeda collaborator and later Government 7 witness residing in the Middle East. On November 8, 2016, the Government filed a motion for leave to take the witness’s testimony by deposition pursuant to Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 15. To protect the witness’s safety and that of his family, the Government also asked the Court to permit the witness to testify under a pseudonym and to limit the cross-examination into the witness’s identity, country of origin, nationality, current location, and his ongoing cooperation with authorities. The Government did not, however, seek to limit its disclosures to Al-Farekh on these subjects. On December 9, 2016, the District Court granted the motion. On March 14, 2017, the witness, who testified under the pseudonym “Sufwan Murad,” was deposed. Murad was the driver and bodyguard of al-Qaeda leader Haji Mohammed. Murad testified that he saw a person he knew as Abdullah al-Shami, a senior official of al-Qaeda’s external operations group, on two separate occasions while driving Mohammed to deliver monthly stipends to the members of al-Shami’s al-Qaeda brigade. Murad described both encounters in significant detail. Murad also identified a photograph of Al-Farekh as depicting the person he knew as al-Shami. The able district judge presided over the Rule 15 deposition. On July 8, 2017, Al-Farekh moved to suppress Murad’s out-of-court photo identification of Al-Farekh and the related testimony regarding AlFarekh’s membership in al-Qaeda. The District Court denied the motion. 8