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| Suspected Terrorist Group Member Released from Virginia Jail |
| By Associated Press |
| Published: 11/26/2002 |
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A man linked to an alleged terrorist group has been released from jail on federal gun charges after pointing out a discrepancy in the legal case against him. Bilal Adulah ben Benu, 28, was freed last week, nearly a year after he was indicted on charges of illegally possessing guns and ammunition and transporting them across state lines. Authorities said the Charlotte County man was linked to al-Fuqra, a violent Islamic sect suspected of dozens of bombings, murders and arson attacks across the United States and Canada. Benu pleaded no contest in April to the gun charges. Authorities had claimed he broke the law by buying weapons despite a 1992 Maryland conviction for crack possession. U.S. District Judge Norman K. Moon in Lynchburg decided to dismiss the federal charges after Benu wrote him a letter arguing that they should not have been filed because of the way Maryland law was written at the time of his drug conviction. ''When you figure it all out, Benu was right,'' prosecutor Tom Bondurant said Monday. ''I don't care who he belongs to,'' he said. ''If he's not liable under the law, he should be set free.'' For several years, authorities have monitored the fenced-in trailer community near Red House where Benu lived, claiming it was an al-Fuqra hideout. Two of his neighbors, Vincente Pierre and Traci Upshur, were sentenced on similar gun charges in April. The organization's goal, according to a 1998 State Department report, is to ''purify'' Islam, even if that means using violence. But residents of the Red House community say they are peaceful and have no ties to al-Fuqra or any terrorist group. |
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