Inmate will meet with lawyer

CHARLESTON, S.C. - A Qatar native with alleged al-Qaida ties has been granted meetings with attorneys a month after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that people held as enemy combatants should have access to lawyers and American courts, his lawyer said Wednesday.

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Defense attorney Mark Berman said he expects to meet with Ali Saleh al-Marri within two weeks, once lawyers receive security clearance. He has been held without access to lawyers, family or friends since the Bush administration designated him as an enemy combatant in June 2003.

Mr. al-Marri was studying at Bradley University in Peoria, Ill., when he was first arrested in 2001.

Mr. Berman said Assistant Solicitor General David Salmons approved the meetings Tuesday, days after Mr. al-Marri's lawyers filed a petition in federal court demanding to see their client.

"The government has recognized the inevitable, that the Supreme Court says he has access to counsel," Mr. Berman said.

Defense attorneys also demanded that the government either release Mr. al-Marri or charge him with a crime in a petition filed last week in federal court in South Carolina, where he is being held in a Navy brig.

A Justice Department spokesman refused comment. Authorities say they have evidence Mr. al-Marri was helping al-Qaida plan terrorist attacks in the United States, but no charges have been filed.

--From the Thursday, July 29, 2004 printed edition of the Augusta Chronicle