A judge Monday ordered three men extradited to the U.S. to face charges in an alleged plot to attack New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport, and a confidential U.S. document said they planned to seek help from Iran.The three men professed their innocence at the hearing.
Chief Magistrate Sherman McNicolls rejected arguments made on behalf of Abdel Nur, Kareem Ibrahim and Abdul Kadir. Their lawyers said the men could not be extradited on conspiracy charges under Trinidadian law. Nur's lawyer said he would appeal the decision.The judge swatted down the defense claims succinctly and directly. Defreitas' lawyers and supporters have been floating the idea that he was simply doesn't have the reading or analytical skills to ever come up with an idea such as blowing up the airport or its fuel systems. One doesn't have to be a rocket scientist to carry out a criminal act and stupidity isn't a bar to being prosecuted or convicted of plotting to carry out the act of conspiring to blow up the airport and its fuel systems.
On their way into court Nur and Ibrahim proclaimed their innocence. Nur told the Associated Press that he is being set up by drug dealers. He was apparently referring to a confidential informant – a convicted drug dealer who taped conversations with the suspects.
Ibrahim said of the allegations, "It's a movie." A third suspect, Abdul Kadir, said nothing as he entered the court. The three men were arrested in June, when U.S. authorities say they discovered the plot to blow up pipelines that supply JFK.
The alleged ringleader of the group – Russel Defreitas – is in custody in New York. He was a former cargo handler at the airport.
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