USF Student Wants Attorney Off The Case

TAMPA - Local lawyer John Fitzgibbons on Monday asked a judge to be removed from the case of Ahmed Mohamed, one of two University of South Florida students accused of transporting explosives.

A hearing on the matter is scheduled for 2:15 p.m. Wednesday in front of U.S. Magistrate Mark A. Pizzo.

In a written motion, Fitzgibbons states that he tried to visit Ahmed Mohamed on Sunday at Falkenburg Road Jail. Jail officials handed Fitzgibbons a note written by Mohamed.

"I don't want you to represent me anymore," the note read.

Contacted by The Tampa Tribune, Fitzgibbons declined to comment on the matter. Reached in Egypt, Mohamed's father, Abdellatif Mohamed, declined to comment.

Mohamed, 26, and Youssef Megahed, 21, who were both born in Egypt, were arrested in South Carolina on Aug. 4 and charged with having explosives in their car. Mohamed later was accused of trying to help terrorists by posting on the Internet a video in which he showed how to use a remote-controlled toy as a bomb detonator.

Mohamed told an investigator the explosives authorities had found in the trunk were "sugar rockets," or fireworks that would travel a few feet into the air, according to a court filing. Mohamed said he made the fireworks himself because it was cheaper than buying them at a roadside stand, the court filing states.

Megahed's public defender wrote in a court filing that the devices were 4- to 6-inch pieces of PVC pipe stuffed with stump remover, cat litter and sugar.

A federal prosecutor, however, has said the pipes were filled with a "low-grade explosive" mixture of potassium nitrate, Karo syrup and cat litter, with the litter used as a binder to keep the substance from coming out of the pipes. The pipes did not have caps on them.

The prosecutor said the devices were not pipe bombs, and the public defender has written that the government has not provided any evidence "that the 'fireworks' would explode if ignited."