Defense opens case in Liberty City 7 terrorism trial
MIAMI -- The leader of a group of men on trial for allegedly plotting to topple Chicago's Sears Tower took the witness stand in his own defense Tuesday, describing his financial struggles to build a construction business and saying he wanted to uplift people in the downtrodden Liberty City neighborhood.
Narseal Batiste, 33, referred only in passing to the terrorism allegations, which include an alleged conspiracy to bomb FBI offices in several cities. Batiste was to continue testifying Wednesday.
Batiste said Tuesday he was unsuccessful at attracting financial support for his purported outreach program -- a nonprofit entity called Universal Divine Saviours -- and suggested that failure was at the root of his legal troubles.
"Quite frankly, if we had received donations, I probably wouldn't be sitting here right now," Batiste said while being questioned by his attorney, Ana M. Jhones.
A key defense claim is that the so-called "Liberty City Seven" only went along with talk of terror plots in hopes of getting thousands of dollars from the man they knew as "Brother Mohammed" and who had promised to help them.
The alleged conspiracy never got beyond the initial stages, but the FBI videotaped Batiste and his six co-defendants taking an oath to al-Qaida led by a government informant posing as an emissary from Osama bin Laden's terror organization. All seven face up to 70 years in prison if convicted of all four terrorism-related conspiracy charges.
But Batiste said he never asked a convenience store operator he knew as Abbas -- another FBI informant -- to use connections in Yemen to obtain money in fall 2005 from al-Qaida or its leadership. Abbas previously testified that such a request was made.
"I never asked him for Osama bin Laden to give me any money whatsoever," Batiste testified. "The only thing I knew about Osama bin Laden was that I read on the news -- that he was affiliated with the al-Qaida terrorist organization."
Batiste said he and the other six men sunk most of their savings into a dilapidated building they repaired and dubbed "The Embassy," which Batiste said he intended to make into a "temple" and center for his supposed outreach program. His religious interest came from a long line of family members who were pastors, including his mother, Batiste said.
"That was the spark to the level of inspiration that I had, that I carried throughout my life," he said.
Batiste was leader of a Miami chapter of a religious sect known as the Moorish Science Temple, which among other things does not recognize the authority of the U.S. government.
Earlier Tuesday, several witnesses described Batiste as a hardworking and trustworthy construction contractor.
Witness Michael Sharpe testified that he hired Batiste several times to do work at his Fort Lauderdale home.
Sharpe described Batiste and the men working with him as steady and respectful, adding that he had no problem leaving them unsupervised.
"I was quite comfortable with the situation," Sharpe said. "They just got it done."
Sharpe said he could not identify any of the other men who came to his home, but Batiste said all six co-defendants worked with him.
Under cross-examination by prosecutors, the witnesses who worked with Batiste acknowledged they knew little about his personal life and that they never socialized with each other. Several said they had never heard of the Moorish Science Temple.