Tenth Circuit Upholds Conviction On Evidence Gathered Under Section 702 of FISA
On Dec. 8, the Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit upheld the conviction of an Uzbek immigrant that relied on information obtained through warrantless foreign intelligence surveillance.
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In a 220-page ruling issued Wednesday, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit found that information collected from warrantless surveillance of non-United States person living abroad did not violate the constitutional rights of Jamshid Muhtorov. Muhtorov, a legal permanent resident of the U.S. and political refugee from Uzbekistan, was convicted for providing material support to the Islamic Jihad Union, a foreign terrorist organization with ties to al-Qaeda.
The opinion, written by Judges Scott Matheson and Allison Eid, ruled that Section 702 surveillance of Muhtorov was reasonable under the Fourth Amendment. Additionally, they found that although the six-and-a-half years of pre-conviction detention was “[u]unusually lengthy,” the unique circumstances of the case justified the length of the pretrial period. Judge Carlos Lucero dissented from the majority, labeling the ruling an “[e]xtreme departure” from accepted constitutional and procedural law.
You can read the opinion here and below:
