| KUNAMA REFUGEES IN THE US FOUND NOT GUILTY OF TERRORISM SUSPICIONS |
| By Amanda Les Myers (AP) |
PHOENIX (AP) – All charges have been dropped against three Kunama refugees who were accused of putting a fake bomb through security at Phoenix’s airport in a possible “dry run” for a terror attack. U.S. District Judge Neil Wake dropped the charges against Luwiza Daman, Asa Shani and Shullu Gorado on March 13 at the request of a federal prosecutor who cited new information in the case, according to court documents obtained Thursday. “Based on the new information, further prosecution is not in the interest of justice,” wrote Assistant U.S. Attorney Joseph Koehler in his motion to dismiss the charges.
Koehler did not explain what the new information was and a spokesman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office refused to elaborate, saying it was not part of the public record. Daman’s attorney, Philip Seplow, told the AP that he thinks the government simply realized the refugees were not guilty and the whole thing was a big misunderstanding, partially because of a significant language barrier. Daman, Shani and Gorado are from war-torn Eritrea on the Red Sea in the Horn of Africa and spent years in refugee camps before getting asylum in the U.S. Gorado speaks some English, while Daman and Shani speak only their native language, a dialect known as Kunama.
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