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Appeals In Explosives Case Focus On Intent

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By ELAINE SILVESTRINI

esilvestrini@tampatrib.com

Published: October 19, 2008

Updated: 10/19/2008 12:44 am

TAMPA - The question of what Youssef Megahed and Ahmed Mohamed were doing when they were arrested during a road trip in South Carolina last year is at the center of legal arguments now before a federal appeals court.

The prosecution and the defense both have filed briefs asking for oral arguments before the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals on the issue of whether the government may use videos taken from Megahed's family home computer as evidence in Megahed's trial on charges of transporting explosives.

The trial had been set for May, but has been put on hold while the prosecution appeals a judge's ruling that blocks the videos from the trial on the grounds prosecutors violated a deadline to turn over copies of evidence to the defense.

Megahed and Mohamed, both Egyptian citizens who were then students at the University of South Florida, were taken into custody after deputies said they found explosives in the trunk of a car owned by Megahed's brother and driven by Mohamed.

The defendants say the items were homemade fireworks, while the government has suggested something more sinister and argued in court papers that they were similar to the Qassam rockets shown on some of the videos.

The defense is arguing in appeals briefs filed last week that the only issue to be decided at Megahed's trial is whether the items in the trunk fit the legal definition of explosives or a destructive device. The prosecution says evidence of Megahed's interest in rockets used in the Middle East is important to show his knowledge of what was in the trunk.

Mohamed, 27, has pleaded guilty to trying to help terrorists by making a video showing how to use a remote-controlled toy car to detonate a bomb. He is scheduled to be sentenced next month.

Megahed, 22, is not charged with terrorism.

The contested evidence in Megahed's case consists mainly of videos described in prosecution court papers as "images of a number of improvised explosive device attacks against military forces in the Middle East."

The toy car video, which was posted on YouTube, was found on Mohamed's laptop inside the students' car in South Carolina. The prosecution says the laptop also contained a video showing the firing of Qassam rockets in the Middle East, which they allege Megahed was viewing just before the car was stopped.

U.S. District Judge Steven D. Merryday has ruled that the prosecution may use the Qassam rockets video from the laptop in Megahed's trial, but may not use the toy car video or the videos found on Megahed's family computer.

The defense contends in court papers that the videos are inflammatory and overly prejudicial. They are irrelevant, the defense argues, to the only issue in the trial - whether the material found in the trunk constitute explosives or a destructive device.

But the prosecution argues that the videos "depict the use of rockets very similar in nature and composition to the potassium-nitrate-filled PVC pipes found in the car trunk."

This, the government says, "is highly relevant and probative to Megahed's knowledge of those PVC pipes in the trunks."

Reporter Elaine Silvestrini can be reached at (813) 259-7837.

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