After SDNY
Trial of Illiterate Manaf
For Drug Money to Afghan
Haqqanis He Gets 30 Years
By
Matthew Russell Lee
SDNY
COURTHOUSE, Dec 13
– Accusing of trafficking
heroin to support the Haqqani
network in Afghanistan, the US
Attorney's Office on April 4,
2019 asked that defendant
Haji Abdul Satar Abdul Manaf be
admonished to tell his family
members in Afghanistan not to
threaten witnesses. U.S.
District Court for the Southern
District of New York Judge Paul
Crotty was happy to do so, and
set a control date 30 days out
about discovery.
But an incongruity arose. It was
said that Manaf can neither read
nor write, yet the prosecutor
referred to hundreds of text
messages as being part of the
discovery. Afterward, Inner City
Press the only media present for
the proceeding asked her to
explain. She politely declined.
Judge Crotty meanwhile asked
Manaf's lawyer in what language
she speaks with him - Urdu -
then asked, You don't speak
Pashtun?
Jump
cut to July 25, 2024, when with
Manaf on trial accompanied by
five lawyers, one of them cross
examined the prosecutors'
Taliban expert Professor Tricia
Bacon of American University.
From Inner City Press thread
On July 26, a DEA confidential source was on the stand, describing
threats against him:
Witness:
They held me
down and told
me, "You're an
American spy,
we're going to
kill you...
Unless you
find us Haji
Dawood, we'll
kill your
whole family.
They let me go
at 4:30 am
On July
30, after more
reading of messages
(acted out),
evidence
closed, and
motions to dismiss
bega,
broken up by an
evidentiary
hearing in an
unrelated copyright
case. Manaf
waived his
appearance. Thread
On
August 1, the
jury found
Manaf guilty.
On
December 6,
Manaf's lawyer
wrote in
asking for a
sentence of no more
than 240
months -
twenty years.
The US Attorney's
Office wrote
in asking for
at least 35
years.
Sentencing is
set for
December 13.
On
December 13,
Inner City
Press attended and
live tweeted,
here.
Amid talk of
seven pulled
teeth, the
Haqqanis and a
female
child not yet
seen, Judge
Rakoff
sentenced Manaf to
30 years.
The
case is US v. Manaf, 18-cr-762
(Rakoff)
***
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