Murder trial starts for Muslim cleric with militant past

A former black militant who renounced violence and became a Muslim cleric is due to face trial this week for murder in a case that will highlight the racial and religious divisions in American society.

In the 1960s, Jamil Abdullah Al-Amin was known as H Rap Brown. Highly vocal and with a reputation for making political threats, he was one of the country's most incendiary civil rights activists.

In March 2000, two sheriff's deputies in Fulton County, Atlanta, tried to serve Mr Al-Amin with a warrant for a series of minor offences, including impersonating a police officer. In the gunfight that erupted both men were shot and one deputy, Ricky Kinchen, 35, died the next day from his injuries. The other, Aldranon English, 28, recovered from his wounds.

Prosecutors, who are seeking the death penalty, claim that Mr Al-Amin fled the scene and was found three days later hiding in a field with a 9mm handgun and a Ruger assault rifle at his side. Police claimed ballistics tests showed the weapons were used in the gunfight with the two deputies.

The defence is challenging each of the claims. Immediately after the shooting, for instance, both deputies told the police that they had shot their attacker, and yet Mr Al-Amin was found uninjured, and the body armour he was wearing when arrested showed no signs of being hit. In addition, bullet holes in vehicles at the scene showed that the gunman fired from the middle of the street, yet Mr English said his attacker was on the sidewalk.

But the case that opened yesterday in Atlanta is about more than just a simple shooting. Mr Al-Amin, 58, claims that he is the victim of a government conspiracy that dates back to the days of the late FBI director J Edgar Hoover.

"The FBI has a file on me containing 44,000 documents, but, prior to this incident their investigation has produced no fruits, no indictments, no arrests," Mr Al-Amin, imam of the influential Community Masjid in Atlanta's West End, told The New York Times in a telephone interview from his cell.

"At some point, they had to make something happen to justify all the investigations and all the money they've spent. More than anything else, they still fear a personality, a character coming up among African-Americans who could galvanise support among all the different elements of the African- American community."

The trial will revive memories of the civil rights struggle in the south and the role of Mr Al-Amin in the battle for voting rights and equality for blacks. As a leader of the Student Nonviolent Co- ordinating Committee, he was at the centre of efforts to organise and register black voters.

But he became disenchanted with civil disobedience and started advocating a more violent struggle. He became an honorary member of the Black Panthers and on one occasion suggested that he might shoot Lady Bird Johnson, the widow of the former United States president. In 1971 he was sentenced to five years for his part in a robbery in New York that ended in a shoot-out with police.

Mr Al-Amin converted to Islam while in jail and his faith, and the alleged prejudice against Muslims, is certain to be a central feature of the trial. The hearing was meant to start last September but was postponed after the terror attacks because the judge felt the atmosphere in America could be prejudicial.

Yesterday, Fulton County Judge Stephanie Manis ruled that Mr Al-Amin, who heads the National Ummah movement, which has founded 36 mosques, was guilty of contempt of court and should be stripped of some of his jail rights because he had been trying to taint the opinion of prospective jurors. Jury selection is due to begin today.

The judge told the court that in addition to the interview he gave, Mr Al-Amin had been writing letters to the congregation at his mosque in which he proclaimed his innocence. She said his actions violated a previous court order not to speak about the killing. "The defendant has the right to proclaim his innocence in the courtroom – not the newspaper," she said.