RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — A federal judge will consider whether a North Carolina man should be forcibly medicated so he can face a charge that he tried to join al-Qaida-linked fighters in Syria.
U.S. District Judge Terrence Boyle will hold a court hearing Tuesday into whether prosecutors can force antipsychotics drugs on Pakistan-born Cary resident Basit Sheikh. He has had months of treatment at a federal mental hospital near Raleigh.
Prosecutors have to convince Boyle that important government interests are at stake in order to forcibly medicate him and put him on trial for allegedly providing material support to a terrorist group.
Sheikh was arrested in 2013 as he tried to board an airliner in Raleigh for a trip to Lebanon. He’s charged with attempting to join the Syrian militant group Jabhat al-Nusra.
Copyright 2015 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Well that one takes more than one look. It seems they can prosecute him without medicating him but want to debrief him as well. The information the are seeking via forced medication doesn’t seem related to prosecution. Its part of the ‘war on terrorism’ they are fighting with the medications. I think the Judge to tell them to shove off. Put the asshole in jail and use conventional methods to get information from him.
Is the government request is as crazy as it sounds.? I have no background on this case, so the request sounds really crazy just from this article. A man accused of violating the law, presumably while psychotic, would be forced to take antipsychotic meds so he could be tried while not psychotic, and, gee, since he just happens to be on antipsychotic meds, we are going to do some interrogating.
If that is roughly accurate, I am with RichinJax: keep the criminal courts out of the business of intelligence gathering and make the medication decision without consideration of the intelligence request.