By Nedra Pickler
Associated Press
WASHINGTON — A judge is deciding whether to release a Guantanamo Bay prisoner captured with a top al-Qaida leader after the Sept. 11 attacks.
Prosecutors say Algerian Abdal Razak Ali was part of a fighting force formed by Abu Zubaydah (ah-BOO’ zoo-BY'-dah), a suspected al-Qaida leader, and trained for martyrdom. Razak Ali’s attorney denies he was a terrorist and says witnesses who claim otherwise were not credible and some were tortured.
Razak Ali acknowledges he was captured along with Abu Zubaydah and others at a guest house in Pakistan. But he says he didn’t know Abu Zubaydah.
U.S. District Judge Richard Leon heard arguments on the largely classified case last month, with Razak Ali listening from the U.S. naval prison in Cuba. Leon plans to read his opinion Tuesday in open court.