Nicaragua Prosecutor Opens Case Against American

The prosecution formally opened its case Wednesday against captured American Eugene Hasenfus, submitting as evidence scores of documents from the C-123 transport plane shot down Oct. 5 and personal papers of the three Americans on board.

Neither Hasenfus, 45, nor his attorney was present as the People’s Tribunal opened an eight-day period for collecting evidence and testimony. But the defense will have access to all the evidence submitted, according to the president of the tribunal, Reynaldo Monterrey.

Hasenfus, whose job was to shove arms and supplies out of the plane to waiting rebels, known as contras, is charged with terrorism, violation of the law on public order and security and illicit association for criminal purposes. He could be sentenced to up to 30 years in prison.

Hasenfus, of Marinette, Wis., has pleaded not guilty and is being held in a maximum security prison on the northern outskirts of Managua. The two other Americans aboard the plane, pilot William J. Cooper and co-pilot Wallace Blaine Sawyer, were killed when the aircraft was downed.

Unlike the indictment against Hasenfus, which details attacks on Nicaragua by the contras and seeks to try the Reagan Administration for its role in the war, the evidence submitted Wednesday focuses largely on the downed aircraft.

The prosecution introduced among other material a business card of Robert W. Owen and described Owen as the link between the contras and the White House. It suggested that Owen may have funneled part of the $27 million Congress approved last year for “humanitarian aid” into military purchases.

Owen was awarded a State Department contract last year at the insistence of Adolfo Calero, the head of the largest contras faction, the Nicaraguan Democratic Force, to assist with the funneling of non-military U.S. aid to the contras.

Either the prosecution or the defense may seek to extend the evidentiary period to 12 days, and the tribunal may then take as many as three days to reach a verdict.

Former U.S. Atty. Gen. Griffin B. Bell, who is advising Hasenfus’ Nicaraguan attorney on the case, left for the United States on Wednesday but is expected to return here Sunday. Sandinista officials would not allow Bell to consult with Hasenfus during his weeklong stay here, saying he is not authorized to practice law in Nicaragua and thus does not represent Hasenfus.

During a stopover in Miami, Bell complained bitterly of Nicaragua’s decision not to let him see his client, the Associated Press reported.

“It was terrible--immoral,” Bell said. “I’m at very much of a hardship” in defending the case, he added.

Asked if Hasenfus is guilty, Bell replied: “He’s guilty of something. He was just a little man who needed a job.”

In Washington, the State Department contended that Hasenfus has been denied due process by the Sandinistas.

“The issue as far as we’re concerned is that Hasenfus receive fair and equitable treatment. He’s a private citizen on trial before a Communist tribunal,” State Department spokesman Charles Redman said.

U.S. Observer Present

State Department attorney Thomas Carothers observed the proceedings here Wednesday while an aide to the prosecutor, Minister of Justice Rodrigo Reyes, read aloud from about 130 items handed over to the court, including material identifying Hasenfus, Cooper and Sawyer.

Also among the papers were a list of names of pilots for the Nicaraguan Democratic Force, references to U.S. Embassy officials in El Salvador, and the business cards of several executives of Southern Air Transport, the Miami-based company with a history of CIA ties that has denied any involvement in the supply operation.

The supply flights were run out of El Salvador’s Ilopango air base and Honduras’ Aguacate military base.

The extensive documentation of the men’s lives and flights, shown to reporters over the past few weeks, provided an outline of the private, international supply network for the contras apparently set up by U.S. officials in 1984, when Congress banned direct CIA involvement with the rebels.

This week the CIA resumed its direct, legal involvement in the operation of the war, after President Reagan released $100 million in U.S. aid to the contras.

In the Hasenfus case, the prosecution said it would call as witnesses Jose Fernando Canales, the Sandinista soldier who shot down the cargo plane with a shoulder-fired missile, and Lt. Col.542273378the zone where the plane was brought down.