What role can a defendant’s religion play in a prosecutor’s closing argument? The Legal Times on Friday reported on a terrorism trial in a Virginia federal court in which Assistant U.S. Attorney Gordon Kromberg argued to the jury: "If you're a kafir, Timimi believes in time of war he's supposed to lie to you. Don't fall for it. Find him -- find Sheik Ali Timimi -- guilty as charged." A “kafir” is a non-Muslim or a non-believer. Kromberg claims that his remark was not about Islam in general, but about this individual defendant’s beliefs.
Before the trial began, the lawyers argued a pre-trial motion revolving around whether jurors could be told that defendant Timimi had said that Muslims could lie to the enemy if they were at war. Defense counsel cited Federal Rules of Evidence, Rule 610, that prohibits using witnesses’ religious beliefs to undermine or support their credibility. But the judge ruled that this statement was a political belief, not a religious one.
Timimi was indicted in 2004 on charges that he helped several others learn how to get to a terrorist training camp in Pakistan.
