Brooklyn judge balances security concerns, press freedom in al-Qaeda terrorism trial
A Brooklyn federal judge told courtroom sketch artists to omit the agents’ faces in trial drawings so that Foreign Secret Service agents can maintain their undercover identities in an open courtroom.
A group of undercover agents from the British security services, commonly known as MI-5, are scheduled to testify in the trial of Abid Naseer, a Pakistani defendant suspected of providing material support to the terrorist group al-Qaeda and, in particular, conspiring to use a bomb in relation to a crime of violence.
According to federal prosecutors in Naseer’s trial, the agents’ identities are of a secret nature and require special treatment to protect their identities. The Eastern District federal attorneys petitioned Judge Raymond Dearie, seeking an order to preclude courtroom sketch artists from sketching the MI-5 agents during their trial testimony.
In an oral ruling from the bench on Monday, Dearie partially granted and partially denied the prosecutor’s request. The judge told the sketch artists present that they were allowed to continue to sketch the trial and may draw the MI-5 agents so long as the faces are omitted, with a “blank face” substituting, and presented with “generic hair.”