Haitian man acquitted in Miami terror trial faces deportatio

August 25, 2008
Haitian man acquitted in Miami terror trial faces deportation hearing
Haitian in Dade terror trial faces deportation
By Luis F. Perez | South Florida Sun-Sentinel
August 25, 2008

Lyglenson Lemorin's driver license photo on Thursday August 21, 2008. Lemorin's was one fo the Liberty Seven that federal officials accused of being a homegrown terrorist cell. He was aquittetd of all charges. He didn't go home after the aquittal. Immigration officials picked Lyglenson Lemorin right away, even though he was in the country legally. (Sun Sentinel/CRISTOBAL HERRERA / August 21, 2008)



The only one of the so-called Liberty City Seven to be acquitted of terrorism-related charges faces possible deportation this week even though he has been a legal U.S. resident for 20 years.

Federal officials want to send Lyglenson Lemorin back to Haiti despite his having been acquitted of charges he was part of a plot to blow up the Sears Tower in Chicago and Miami FBI headquarters.

Opening arguments are scheduled for today before Immigration Judge Kenneth S. Hurewitz at the Krome detention center in southwest Miami-Dade County.

The government charged Lemorin and six other Miami men in June 2006 with conspiring to aid al-Qaida to blow up buildings and wage war on the United States.



After a two-month trial and nine days of deliberations, the jury acquitted Lemorin on Dec. 13 on all counts and deadlocked on his six co-defendants. A second trial of the co-defendants also ended in a mistrial. A third trial for the six is set for January.

Instead of setting Lemorin free, Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials took him to a detention center in Lumpkin, Ga.

"It's virtually unprecedented," said David Abraham, a professor of immigration and citizenship law at the University of Miami School of Law. "I know of no other case."

Nicole Navas, a spokeswoman for the agency, said Lemorin would be brought to Miami for the hearing. She declined to comment further.

In 2005, Congress expanded a law that authorizes the deportation of noncitizens who "endorse or espouse" terrorist activity, even if they haven't been convicted of a crime.

Still, Lemorin's family and lawyer are confident he will win.

"It's not very often they try to deport someone who has been found not guilty by a jury of his peers," said Charles Kuck, the Atlanta-based immigration lawyer representing Lemorin. "They don't like to lose."

Prosecutors have nothing new in this case that hasn't already been presented to a jury, he said.

The defense plans to call as a witness Narseal Batiste, the alleged leader of the Liberty City Seven. He will testify that Lemorin isn't a terrorist and never was involved in any terrorist activity, Kuck said.

Lemorin's three children are looking forward to having their father home, said his wife, Charlene Mingo-Lemorin.

"The children cry a lot," Mingo-Lemorin said. "They haven't seen their father in about a year-and-a-half."

Luis F. Perez can be reached at lfperez@sun-sentinel.com or 954-356-4553.

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