Defense lawyers ask judge to OK seat upgrade for Africa trip; federal prosecutors are flying coach
Federal prosecutors are protesting a request by three defense lawyers to fly business class, rather than coach, in a planned trip to Africa to depose a prisoner for a terrorism case.
The feds are paying for the trip by lawyers for Ali Yasin Ahmed, Madhi Hashi and Mohammed Yusuf, and federal prosecutors taking the same trip for the same deposition will be flying in coach. However, the three defense attorneys are appealing to a federal judge in the Brooklyn case for an upgrade, reports the New York Daily News.
Attorney David Stern, who represents Yusuf, told U.S. District Judge Sandra Townes the lawyers will be unable to work or sleep effectively when they arrive at their unidentified destination, after a trip of at least 17 hours, if they are required to use coach seats. The depositions, he wrote, ““are of critical importance … and the attorneys should be alert and rested to conduct them.
The three defendants are charged with providing material support al-Shabaab, a terror group based in Somalia.
