Hearings Delayed in Smuggling Case

A federal court judge granted a government request Thursday to postpone for one week pretrial hearings for 17 defendants charged with plotting to smuggle $2-billion worth of arms to Iran so that prosecutors can continue to try to determine the relevancy of White House sanctioned arms shipments to the case.

“We have been diligently making inquiries,” Assistant U.S. Atty. Lorna Schofield told Judge Leonard B. Sand. “We have been making progress. We want accurate information.”

Schofield said that government lawyers would coordinate their inquiry with the special prosecutor who will be named to investigate clandestine U.S. arms sales to Iran.

“I think events are occurring at such a rapid pace that it seems entirely appropriate,” Judge Sand said in granting the one-week adjournment. The case in federal court in Manhattan is the first clear test of the impact on prosecutions of President Reagan’s secret arms shipments to Iran.