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Judge sets bail for detained Jordanian-born student

NEW YORK (CNN) -- A federal judge has decided to set bail for a Jordanian-born college student who has been detained for more than two months in connection with the investigation of the September 11 terrorist attacks.

The student, Osama Awadallah, 21, is one of 104 individuals on a list released Tuesday by Attorney General John Ashcroft of those facing criminal charges since the sweeping probe began.

Awadallah, indicted last month, is charged with making false statements to a New York grand jury hearing evidence in the investigation. According to the indictment, his name was on a scrap of paper found in the car that Pentagon hijacker Nawaf Al Hazmi abandoned at Washington's Dulles Airport.

In a news conference at the Justice Department, Ashcroft singled out Awadallah and three others by name from among the 55 charged individuals currently in custody.

But U.S. District Judge Shira Scheindlin, in a 17-page written opinion also released Tuesday, found fault with the government's case.

"My review of the grand jury testimony has convinced me that the evidence against Awadallah is not particularly strong," Scheindlin wrote.

Awadallah, a permanent U.S. resident who has lived in San Diego for three years, was one of three college students picked up in late September and held under material witness warrants because of their acquaintances with alleged hijackers who lived in San Diego for part of 2000.

One of the students was released after 17 days in custody. The other was sent back to California to face charges of lying on a political asylum application and remains in custody.

Awadallah has remained locked up in Manhattan's federal jail, the Metropolitan Correctional Center. Scheindlin set bail at $500,000.

San Diego defense attorney Randy Hamud said the family was confident it could raise the money for Awadallah's release with the help of the local Muslim community, and he predicted Awadallah would be home within a week's time.

Awadallah's father, a naturalized U.S. citizen, and four siblings live in San Diego, where Awadallah recently worked as a security guard and was enrolled in classes at Grossmont Community College.

The judge found no evidence linking Awadallah to the September 11 activities of the hijackers he once knew -- Al Hazmi or Khalid Almihdhar, who seized American Airlines Flight 77 and steered the Los Angeles-bound plane into the Pentagon.

"At no point has the government alleged or argued that Awadallah was involved with their illegal activities or had any part in the planning or preparation of their attacks or any advance knowledge of those attacks," the judge wrote.

Said defense attorney Hamud: "I think the attorney general has egg on his face."

The charges against Awadallah stem from two grand jury appearances. In testimony October 10, Awadallah conceded seeing Al Hazmi about 35 to 40 times in the San Diego area between April 2000 and January 2001 at Awadallah's previous workplace, a Texaco station, and at a mosque. As for Almihdhar, he said he did not recognize photographs of him and did not know anyone named "Khalid."

Awadallah also claimed he did not write the names "Nawaf" and "Khalid" in a writing exercise in English as a second language class. But September 15, after the suspected hijackers' names were publicized, a teacher turned in the exam book with the names inside.

In his second grand jury appearance October 15, after being shown the original exam booklet instead of a faxed photocopy, Awadallah admitted writing the names. He also identified Almihdhar as a man who had often accompanied Al Hazmi and acknowledged knowing him.

"Defendant is charged with making two false material declarations, but he recanted that testimony at a subsequent grand jury appearance," Scheindlin wrote.

That is now the basis for a forthcoming motion to dismiss the charges, from Awadallah's defense attorney in New York, Jesse Berman.

Berman has said Awadallah had not seen the hijackers in more than a year.

The indictment says FBI agents found computer-generated photographs of accused terrorist leader Osama bin Laden in Awadallah's apartment and Islamic militant videotapes in his car. The tapes were titled "Martyrs of Bosnia," "Bosnia 1993," and "The Koran vs. the Bible, Which is God's Word?"

Five weeks ago, a U.S. magistrate judge denied bail for Awadallah, accepting the U.S. attorney's argument that the defendant was a flight risk.

If convicted, Awadallah could face five years in prison on each of the two counts of perjury.