DETROIT (JTA) — A suspected Hezbollah activist who was slated to appear in a U.S. federal court has disappeared.
Fawzi Mustapha Assi may have fled the country, committed suicide or been murdered by Hezbollah, said his attorney David Steingold, after Assi failed to arrive at the courthouse on Tuesday of last week.
Assi, the first person charged in Detroit under a 1996 federal anti-terrorism statute, is accused of attempting to provide global positioning equipment, night-vision goggles and a thermal-imaging camera to a terrorist organization, trying to export night-vision equipment without a license and exporting thermal-imaging cameras without a license.
If convicted, Assi could face a maximum penalty of 30 years in prison and a $750,000 fine.
Steingold maintained that the suspect equipment “were not articles of war.” The global-positioning equipment is “one step above what you see in a Cadillac today,” he said.
According to an affidavit, Assi was detained at Detroit Metro Airport on July 13, when U.S. Customs agents confiscated the equipment as he prepared to leave for Lebanon.
He was then placed on 24-hour surveillance by the FBI and questioned several more times until his arrest July 23, according to Assistant U.S. Attorney Lynn Helland.
Steingold maintained that Assi had been under surveillance since Feb. 2, and that the FBI tapped his home and work phones. After more than 1,300 recorded hours of phone conversations, “not one item suggested he was a member of, or sympathetic to, Hezbollah,” Steingold said.
Federal agents said Assi admitted involvement in smuggling during questioning after his arrest and discussed his contacts with the agents.
That Assi may have discussed his contacts in Lebanon with federal agents leads his family to believe that he may have been killed, Steingold said.
Assi, 38, immigrated to the United States from Lebanon 20 years ago. A Ford Motor Co. engineer for the past 11 years, he is legally divorced but was still living with his wife and three children in a Detroit suburb.
“Every member of his family lives in the United States. He has an outstanding work record and there’s nothing to indicate that he would flee,” said Steingold.
On Monday of last week, Assi denied under oath that he had anything to do with Hezbollah, said Steingold.