JURY ACAUITS EX-AGENT IN PLOT TO KILL QADDAFI FOE

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00552R000505280002-1
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 30, 2010
• Sequence Number: 2
• Publication Date: March 6, 1983
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/08/30: CIA-RDP90-00552R000505280002-1
17' YORK TINES
6 MARCH 1983
Juiy Acauits Ex-Agent in Plot to Kill Qadclafi Foe
WASHINGTON, March 5 (AP) -
Edwin P. Wilson, the former Central In-
telligence Agency operative, has been
found not guilty of charges that he con-
spired to kill an opponent of Col. Muam-
mar el-Qaddafi, the Libyan leader, but
he still faces at least two more trials
arising from his Libyan dealings.
He has been sentenced to a total of 32
years in prison on two earlier convic-
tions. "This doesn't hurt our other cases
at all," Assistant United States Attor-
ney E. Lawrence Barcella Jr. said after
the verdict was delivered Friday night
by a Federal jury that deliberated for
three hours.
Patrick Wall, a defense attorney, dis-
agreed, saying, "I really don't know the
impact, but it may be helpful for pro-
spective jurors to read that he has been
acquitted after having read earlier that
he was convicted." W. Wall said leis
client told him after the verdict that he
was "very pleased."
the verdict gone either way," Mr. Wall
said, "but I was' surprised at how
quickly they came back. I figured if a
jury came back that quickly, it wasn't a
good sign."
He said he was disappointed but
added, "Obviously, thus far in this
series of cases involving Mr. Wilson,
justice is being served, just not in its
full measure."
Mr. Wilson was sentenced to 15 years
money changed hands in the United I Umar Abdullah Muhayshi, a member of
States. '; the ruling Libyan Revolutionary Coun-
"I wouldn't have been surprised had ~ cil who defected to Egypt in 1975 after
Basis of Federal Charge,
Mr. Wilson was charged with conspir-
ing to commit murder and solicitation
to commit murder. Each charge car-
ried a five-year prison term. Even
though the intended victim was living in
exile in Egypt atthe time, it.was a Fed-
i eral case because, the Government
Court in Alexandria, Va., in December
for illegal arms deals with Libya. Last
month in Houston, he received another
17 years and a $145,000 fine for smug-
gling 21 tons of plastic explosive to
Libya. He faces a second Washington
trial on charges he ran a terrorist train-
ing school for Libya and a trial in New
York on charges that he tried to hire
someone to kill Mr. Barcella, another
Federal prosecutor and seven wit-
nesses against him.
In the case concluded Friday, dating
to 1976, Mr. Wilson and Frank E. Terpil,
who is believed living in Beirut, Leba-
non, were accused of arranging a plot in
disagreements with Colonel Qaddafi. I
Mr. Wilson and Mr. Terpil were said
to have offered $1 million to Rafael
Quintero, a Cuban refugee who, prose-
cutors said, brought two other Cuban
refugees into the plot. It fell apart after
the three talked with Mr. Wilson and
Mr. Terpil in Geneva. The Cubans re-
turned to the United States and told the
C.I.A. about it.
Mr. Wall assailed Mr. Quintero's
credibility. The sole defense witness
was Kenneth Conklin, a former lawyer
for Mr. Wilson, who said Mr. Quintero
told him in 1980 that the scheme was not
an assassination plot. Mr. Quintero said
he could not recall meeting with Mr.
Conklin.
"I suggest that Quintero didn't tell
you the truth," Mr. Wall said in his clos-
ing argument. Referring to Mr. Ouin- I
tero's past employment by the intelli-
gence agency and his role in the 1961
Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba, the law-
yer said: ,'His job was to kill on orders.
i I suggest to you that if a man will kill,
he'll lie."
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/08/30: CIA-RDP90-00552R000505280002-1