Hall Linked to Conspiracy to Assassinate U.S. Envoy

The FBI was told in January by a man convicted of weapons charges that Sam Hall, an American being held on spy charges in Nicaragua, participated in an alleged 1985 conspiracy to assassinate the U.S. ambassador to Costa Rica and place blame on the Nicaraguan government, a federal public defender said today.

Hall, 49, of Dayton, Ohio, was detained Friday near Punta Huete Air Base in Nicaragua. He faces trial before a special Nicaraguan tribunal on charges of spying against the Sandinistas.

John Mattes, a federal public defender in Miami, said Hall was identified in a report to the FBI as one of a group of men connected to Civilian Materiel Assistance who allegedly planned to assassinate Lewis Tambs, then U.S. ambassador to Costa Rica.

The FBI office in Miami said no spokesman was available immediately to comment on the report.

The allegation was made by Mattes’ client, Jesus Garcia, a former Dade County corrections officer who has been convicted of weapons charges and is in federal detention in Miami.

Garcia “had asked us to look into Mr. Hall in the fall of 1985,” Mattes said. “According to Mr. Garcia, there was a conspiracy by a great number of institutions to assassinate the ambassador to Costa Rica and blame it on the Sandinistas.”

Contra sources said Hall, while not directly connected to the U.S.-backed rebels fighting the Nicaraguan government, had visited their headquarters frequently and worked with the Miskito Indians, who also have fought the Sandinista government.

Mattes said that according to Garcia, a Civilian Materiel “international brigade” flew out of Fort Lauderdale in March, 1985, bound for Costa Rica with a shipment of arms, but the attorney said he did not know what happened in the plot to assassinate Tambs. Garcia did not participate in the flight.