By Matthew Russell Lee
SDNY COURTHOUSE, Dec 13 – Accusing of trafficking heroin to support the Haqqani network in Afghanistan, the US Attorney's Office on April 4, 2019 asked that defendant Haji Abdul Satar Abdul Manaf be admonished to tell his family members in Afghanistan not to threaten witnesses. U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York Judge Paul Crotty was happy to do so, and set a control date 30 days out about discovery.
But an incongruity arose. It was said that Manaf can neither read nor write, yet the prosecutor referred to hundreds of text messages as being part of the discovery. Afterward, Inner City Press the only media present for the proceeding asked her to explain. She politely declined. Judge Crotty meanwhile asked Manaf's lawyer in what language she speaks with him - Urdu - then asked, You don't speak Pashtun?
Jump cut to July 25, 2024, when with Manaf on trial accompanied by five lawyers, one of them cross examined the prosecutors' Taliban expert Professor Tricia Bacon of American University. From Inner City Press thread
On July 26, a DEA confidential source was on the stand, describing threats against him:
Witness: They held me down and told me, "You're an American spy, we're going to kill you... Unless you find us Haji Dawood, we'll kill your whole family. They let me go at 4:30 am
On July 30, after more reading of messages (acted out), evidence closed, and motions to dismiss bega, broken up by an evidentiary hearing in an unrelated copyright case. Manaf waived his appearance. Thread
On August 1, the jury found Manaf guilty.
On December 6, Manaf's lawyer wrote in asking for a sentence of no more than 240 months - twenty years. The US Attorney's Office wrote in asking for at least 35 years. Sentencing is set for December 13.
On December 13, Inner City Press attended and live tweeted, here. Amid talk of seven pulled teeth, the Haqqanis and a female child not yet seen, Judge Rakoff sentenced Manaf to 30 years.
The case is US v. Manaf, 18-cr-762 (Rakoff)
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