WASHINGTON, Sept 1 (AFP) - The US Justice Department has asked a federal judge to throw out the convictions of two Moroccans tried last year in a major terrorism case in Detroit, Michigan, saying prosecutors deprived the defendants of evidence in the case.
Karim Koubriti, 26, and Abdel-Ilah Elmardoudi, 38, were convicted in June 2003 on charges of conspiring to provide material support to terrorists. They were facing up to 10 and 15 years in prison, respectively.
A third Moroccan, Ahmed Hannan, 36, was convicted on a document fraud charge but was cleared of terror charges. He was facing up to five years in jail.
The three men's attorneys had requested a new trial, and the Justice Department concurred in a memo late Tuesday asking US District Court Judge Gerald Rosen to drop the charges and convictions against the defendants.
The Justice Department last year hailed the so-called Detroit sleeper cell case as a major victory against terrorists hiding in the United States.
But in its 60-page memo, the Justice Department says prosecutors "committed a pattern of mistakes and oversights that deprived the defendants" of evidence and "created a record filled with misleading inferences that such material did not exist."
The department said the defendants deserve a "speedy" new trial that would not include the terror charges.
"The government believes that it should not prolong the resolution of this matter pursuing hearings it has no prospects of winning," the Justice Department says in the memo.
It is up to Rosen to decide whether to drop the charges and convictions, said Bryan Sierra, a Justice Department spokesman.
The new trial would only include document fraud charges, said William Swor, Elmardoudi's attorney.
"We're pleased for our clients," Swor said, adding that "we still have a lot of work left to do."
"We're disappointed that so many people in the federal government were involved in this misconduct, but we're also gratified that so many people in federal government we're involved in correcting it," he told AFP.
Prosecutors Richard Convertino and Keith Corbett were accused by defense attorneys during the trial of withholding key documents, evidence and witnesses.
Last December, Rosen criticized prosecutors for withholding documents that could have been used to challenge the credibility of the government's star witness in the case. He ordered a review of federal records to determine whether other documents were withheld.
Convertino, who was removed from the case last September, has filed a civil suit against Justice Department officials, claiming that they retaliated against him for criticizing the department's handling of the terrorism case. His handling of the case is being investigated.