Defense claims entrapment in Kansas airport bomb plot
Source: Associated Press
Defense claims entrapment in Kansas airport bomb plot
By ROXANA HEGEMAN, Associated Press | February 2, 2015 | Updated: February 2, 2015 5:14pm
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — An FBI agent who befriended a man now accused of plotting a suicide bomb attack at a Wichita airport radicalized him and induced him to commit the crime, defense attorneys argued Monday.
Terry Loewen, a former avionics technician, was arrested in December 2013 when he allegedly tried in to bring a van filled with inert explosives onto the tarmac at Mid-Continent Airport. His arrest capped a sting operation in which undercover FBI agents posed as co-conspirators.
Loewen has pleaded not guilty to attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction, attempting to use an explosive device to damage property and attempting to give material support to al-Qaida.
Defense attorneys contended in a court filing Monday that the evidence of government entrapment is so strong that the indictment should be thrown out even before the case goes to a jury. They argued Loewen had no predisposition to commit the crime when the government began its investigation in June 2013.
Read more: http://www.chron.com/news/crime/article/Defense-asks-court-to-toss-out-charges-suicide-6057305.php
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