Jurors at Mehanna trial will be shown video that includes bin Laden speech

By Milton J. Valencia, Globe Staff

Prosecutors in the federal terrorism trial of Tarek Mehanna plan to show jurors a video promoting violent jihad in which Mehanna allegedly added English subtitles to a speech by Osama bin Laden, the prosecutors said today.

A booking photo of Mehanna from 2009

The video, known as the “Expedition of Sheikh Umar Hadid,” is one of dozens of visuals that prosecutors received approval to show jurors during opening statements Thursday in US District Court in Boston.

They hope the video will show that the 29-year-old Mehanna, an American citizen, was conspiring to support Al Qaeda by translating such materials and distributing them on the Internet, allegedly in support of Al Qaeda’s propaganda unit, or “media wing.”

Prosecutors may also show pictures of the Twin Towers burning after the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, and of Mehanna standing later outside Ground Zero in a joking posture, though they did not say which photos exactly or how many they are using.

US District Judge George A. O’Toole Jr. approved the use of the visuals during a final pretrial hearing today.

O’Toole has not finalized an official jury, but lawyers and prosecutors expect to do that Thursday morning after using peremptory challenges of a final pool of prospective jurors, whom O’Toole has already declared to be suitable to serve on the final panel.

Opening statements are expected to occur once the panel is finalized.

Meanwhile, Mehanna’s supporters plan a large-scale march from Occupy Boston’s headquarters in Dewey Square to the Moakley Courthouse, where they will rally before and after the court proceedings.

The group Americans for Peace and Tolerance is expected to hold its own rally outside the courthouse.

The buildup comes as one of the most unique, high-profile criminal trials the state has seen in recent time is set to begin.

Mehanna, a popular young leader in the area’s Muslim community, who holds a doctorate from the Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences, faces life in prison for allegedly conspiring to support al Qaeda, to kill in a foreign territory, and for lying to FBI investigators.

Prosecutors say he traveled to Yemen in 2004 in search of terrorism training. He did not succeed, but he allegedly returned here with the dedication to promote Al Qaeda’s propaganda, by translating Arabic texts promoting violent jihad and distributing them to others on the Internet.

Prosecutors say the work was at the direction of Al Qaeda’s call for followers to spread their jihadist beliefs.

Assistant United States Attorney Aloke Chakravarty said today that an expert will testify that Mehanna’s travels to Yemen and his distribution of the propaganda “were “consistent with answering the call to act.”

The expert “will be testifying through the lens of Al Qaeda,” Chakravarty said.

Mehanna argues through his lawyers, however, that his trip to Yemen was for educational purposes. His lawyers also argue that any information he promoted or distributed was legally permissible by his First Amendment right to free speech, no matter how controversial the matter.

The lawyers say the speech is protected as long as it was not done in partnership or in coordination with a terrorist organization.

Mehanna, they say, is open about his opposition to US foreign policy, particularly the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Mehanna has argued through his lawyers that many of the materials he has translated were written by the same freedom fighters who fought Soviet Union occupation of Afghanistan three decades ago.

J.W. Carney Jr., one of Mehanna’s lawyers, unsuccessfully sought permission today to use his own visuals in his opening statement. Carney wanted to show photographs of the US Constitution and of the Westboro Baptist Church demonstrators. The demonstrators protested the funeral of Matthew Snyder, a Marine who died in the Iraq war, and the US Supreme Court found that their speech – in which they called for the deaths of all soldiers – was constitutionally protected.

Carney tried unsucessfully to use the work of the demonstrators as an example of free speech.

“Our Constitution was amended … to provide for the freedom of speech,” Carney said.