Lawyers for accused “bike path terrorist” Sayfullo Saipov want prosecutors to reveal intercepted calls between their client and other ISIS supporters.
The attorneys argue in papers filed late Friday evening that their client — who faces the death penalty for the Halloween 2017 terror attack that left eight dead — has a right to review the intercepts, which prosecutors have argued are confidential.
“The government must make a choice: its death penalty or its secrecy,” reads the 10-page filing, addressed to Manhattan federal Judge Vernon Broderick. “If the government wishes to proceed with its Death Notice, then it must give Mr. Saipov the information he seeks.”
“The degree to which Mr. Saipov was influenced by a community of people who embraced, or at least sympathized with, the goals of designated foreign terrorist organizations in Syria and elsewhere is a necessary aspect of the defense’s mitigation investigation,” the lawyers write. “But without access to what the government knows about Mr. Saipov’s contacts’ interaction with and support for radical Islamism, the defense is at a clear disadvantage.”
In their own filings, prosecutors have said they don’t plan to present the wiretaps at trial, and therefore shouldn’t have to share them with the defense.
Court documents revealed earlier this year that the alleged murderer had been under surveillance prior to the attack — and that feds even listened in on a call placed just a day before he’s accused of driving a truck down a crowded Manhattan bike lane.
Saipov’s trial is scheduled to kick off in April 2020.