Delay of Iran Arms Trial Seems Likely After Ruling

New guidelines laid down Thursday in response to complaints by defense lawyers seeking access to 300,000 classified documents made it doubtful that the Iranian arms trial will start before the November presidential election.

U.S. District Judge Gerhard A. Gesell issued the guidelines after hearing a lengthy report by independent counsel Lawrence E. Walsh, who said many of the secret documents are irrelevant to the trial and so sensitive that they could expose people “to torture and death.”

Walsh indicated that he would resist attempts by all four defendants or their lawyers to review the mass of data. The judge agreed with Walsh after defense attorneys were unable to settle on a procedure for reviewing them informally.

Judge Appreciates Risks

Gesell, who a day earlier had criticized Reagan Administration officials for their slow pace in clearing the classified government files for review by the defendants, said Thursday he appreciated that Walsh had certain “national security obligations.”

“As far as I’m concerned, they have no right to fish through these records,” Gesell said of the defendants and their lawyers. But to ensure that all useful and relevant documents are ready for the trial, Gesell said defense attorneys should file formal requests by May 16, describing the types of government files they wish to examine.

Brendan V. Sullivan Jr., the attorney for Marine Lt. Col. Oliver L. North, told Gesell that “my problem is I cannot agree that something is totally outside the case unless I see it.”

The new procedure for seeking “discovery materials” seemed to foreclose the chance of starting the high-visibility trial by July, as Gesell had previously planned.

Time-Consuming Battles

Defense requests for discovery traditionally lead to time-consuming battles over what specific documents will be furnished to defendants, according to legal experts, especially in light of Walsh’s statements about the extreme sensitivity of some of the records. In addition, two attorneys said they were having serious problems interviewing potential witnesses.

Gesell has said that if he cannot start what is expected to be a long trial by midsummer, it will have to be postponed until after the November election. This is because he has ruled out any testimony during the campaign that usually starts on Labor Day, saying he wants to keep the trial and the political race from having any effect on each other.

The judge also is asking for more pretrial legal arguments involving defense claims that Walsh’s office may have improperly used parts of some defendants’ immunized testimony before Congress last year to build a case against them. Gesell held two days of hearings on the issue this week but said he is not yet ready to decide the question.

Walsh told Gesell that some government documents are so sensitive that they should not be seen by any defendants except North, a former National Security Council aide, and his former superior and co-defendant, retired Rear Adm. John M. Poindexter, both of whom had top-secret clearance and probably saw the documents before as Reagan Administration officials.

Hakim Singled Out

Walsh said two other defendants, Albert A. Hakim, an Iranian-born U.S. businessman, and retired Air Force Maj. Gen. Richard V. Secord, a logistics expert for North, have no right to see some of the highly sensitive and “irrelevant” papers, which he estimated composed up to 10% of the total.

He singled out Hakim as “a defendant in the business of selling security systems to foreign governments in the Middle East,” adding that “the need for him to see them is an extreme reach.”

Hakim complained in court papers earlier this week that he was being denied “free access” to classified documents necessary for his defense on grounds that he lacked the proper clearance.

But Walsh told the court hearing that an American traveling in the Middle East--apparently referring to Hakim--could be endangered if he was known to possess the secrets found in some of these records.

‘Torture and Death’

“They (the records) could subject people in difficult circumstances to torture and death,” Walsh declared.

Richard W. Beckler, Poindexter’s lawyer, said document experts have told him that an interagency committee working on the records can declassify only an average of two documents per hour--or, as Beckler put it, “a total of only 48 pages a day if they worked around the clock.”

At the White House, however, presidential spokesman Marlin Fitzwater told reporters that the review committee had cleared 40,000 pages of classified documents in 14 working days, a sign that “we will find a way to provide the documents.”

Walsh said 35,000 documents have been cleared so far.

Richard N. Janis, Hakim’s lawyer, told the court that “special arrangements may have to be made” to accommodate the needs of his client. Secord’s attorney, James E. Sharp, joined Beckler in complaining that many government officials whom they have sought to interview have insisted that all requests be processed by Walsh’s office, a time-consuming process.

Beckler and Sharp said they need to interview these officials to pinpoint what classified records to request.