GRANTS PASS, Ore. (AP) — Defense attorneys charge that the prosecution engaged in “outrageous government conduct” by failing to disclose that FBI agents paid a key witness $14,500 in the trial of an Oregon man convicted of helping smuggle $150,000 through an Islamic charity to Saudi Arabia.
Documents filed Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Portland seek a new trial for Pete Seda, a former tree surgeon also known as Pirouz Sedaghaty. He was co-founder of the American branch of the Al-Haramain Islamic Foundation in Ashland.
Although Seda was not convicted of terrorism, prosecutors are seeking the maximum eight years in prison for his tax fraud and conspiracy convictions, arguing he intended the money to support Muslim fighters battling the Russian army in Chechnya.
