North’s Attempt to Avoid Trial in Contra Deal Denied
A federal appeals court on Friday rebuffed an attempt by Oliver L. North and two co-defendants to stop their prosecution for diverting the proceeds of U.S.-Iran arms sales to the Nicaraguan Contras.
A three-judge panel of the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said it would only consider arguments that the defendants’ congressional testimony was illegally used against them after convictions.
Appeal Has to Wait
“Except for a very limited number of cases . . . appeals in criminal cases must await the termination of the proceedings by final judgment,” the judges said.
North, a former National Security Council aide; former National Security Adviser John M. Poindexter, and arms dealer Albert A. Hakim contended that because of widespread publicity the grand jurors and witnesses were exposed to the congressional testimony the defendants gave under limited immunity from prosecution.
Prosecutors are barred from using the immunized testimony that witnesses give Congress as evidence against them in court.
Although the court did not rule on the merits of the appeal, the judges said the defendants’ “claim that the (congressional) immunity affords them a right not to be prosecuted at all is ill-founded.”
Immunized Testimony
The three defendants had appealed U.S. District Judge Gerhard A. Gesell’s preliminary determination that prosecutors and grand jurors had not relied on the immunized congressional testimony as evidence to return the indictment.
Gesell ordered separate trials for North, Poindexter, Hakim and retired Air Force Maj. Gen. Richard V. Secord, a business partner of Hakim who testified on Capitol Hill without limited immunity.
The defendants are accused of conspiring to defraud the U.S. government by diverting proceeds to the Contras from the arms-for-hostages deals with Iran at a time when Congress banned American military aid to the rebels.
Independent counsel Lawrence E. Walsh has elected to try North first, but the case is not expected to go to trial until next year.
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