GHANAIAN DISPUTES U.S. RIGHT TO INDICT HIM

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000504650035-7
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: February 9, 2012
• Sequence Number: 35
• Publication Date: October 2, 1985
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/02/09: CIA-RDP90-00965R000504650035-7
ARTICLE,
ON PAGE
By Caryle Murphy
D Washington Poet Staff Writer
A Ghanaian native is to go on tri-
al in Alexandria later this month on
a charge of espionage in a case that
raises a novel legal issue: Can a for-
eigner be tried in an American
court for acts that were, for the
most part, committed outside the
United States?
The Justice Department says it
can anis seeking to have Michael
Agbotui ussou is a first cousin of
Uhana's leader, Might Lt. Je
Rawlings, tried in Alexandria on
char win from his relation-
ship with a former Central Intelli-
gence Azency employe rom ir-
w o has Rleaded guilty to giv-
ingim classified information.
Soussoudis' lawyers have asked
that his indictment be dismissed on
the grounds that the United States
cannot prosecute a foreigner for
alleged criminal actions not com-
mitted under U.S. jurisdiction.
The indictment is "an attempt to
preclu3lawful counterintelligence
activity by a foreign national actin
in is own county ale edl at the
direction of o icials of that coun-
ty, is lawyers sai -in a motion
filed in Alexandria. The motion will
Se--argued Friday.
Government prosecutors con-
cede that all of oussou is alleged
acts except one occurred in Ghana
at t e irection o es rican
country's intelligence service. The
act that occurred in the United
States was his trip to a Holiday Inn
in Northern Virginia to meet with
the CIA employe, Sharon Scranage.
Government prosecutors say that
Soussoudis' visit to Springfield is
enoug to support its charges. The
"defendant's actions compromised
t e CIA's entire operation in
Mina," the government states,
adding t at his prosecution was "in-
stigated at the highest levels of t e
executive branch after care ul con-
sideration of its implications for
merican orei n olic ."
Moreover, thprosecutors noted
that, while Soussoudis held a
Ghanaian passport, he also has been
a permanent resident alien of the
United States since 1970.
This status means that "there is
no question about whether the Es-
pionage Act reaches his activity
abroad," the prosecutors state in
their legal brief.
"The indictment represents an
attempt to protect vital American
intelligence informatio-n-Fro-m-6in-g
o taine y orei n overnments
through the recruitment of CIA em-
ployes to engage in treasonable es-
pionage ... an is not an attempt
to prevent the Ghanaian govern-
ment from pursuing normal coun-
terintelligence activii ; nor does it
have that " a ect, the .Sgovernn--
ment s awyers declared in n their
brie .
Earlier this year, East German
Alfred Zehe was arrested in Boston
and charged with espionage based
on acts that occurred in East Berlin
and Mexico City. Zehe p-feded
.guilty to four counts of espionage
and later was traded in a spy swap
with East Germany.
Legal experts iffer on whether
the courts have authority to act in
such cases.
"For our law to apply to criminal
conduct of aliens in a foreign coun-
try would violate international pub-
lic law," said Covey T. Oliver, vis-
iting professor of law at American
University.
But Harvard University law pro-
fessor Abram Chayes said that "it's
possible for a country to exercise
jurisdiction over a nonnational ...
in order to protect interests of su-
preme importance."
Such a case is rare, Chayes
added, mainly because "it doesn't
usually happen that a person wan-
ders into the country and leaves
himself exposed to arrest."
MICHAEL AGBOTUI SOUSSOUDIS
... alleged crimes occurred in Ghana
WASHINGTON POST
2 October 1985
Ghanaian Disputes U.S.- Right to
Indict Him
Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/02/09: CIA-RDP90-00965R000504650035-7