Translator to Plead Guilty to Taking U.S. Documents

A former civilian translator accused of taking classified documents from the prison camp at the U.S. naval base in Cuba could be free within months under an agreement with prosecutors.

Under a deal reached in federal court Friday, Ahmed Fathy Mehalba will plead guilty to taking classified information and then lying about it, and be sentenced to 20 months in prison.

Mehalba, 32, an Egyptian-born U.S. citizen, could be released within months with credit for time served since his September 2003 arrest. A judge still must sign off on the deal.

“He’s not a terrorist, not a spy,” said Joseph Savage, an attorney for Mehalba. “We think the agreement we’re proposing is the right result.”

Mehalba’s lawyers have argued that he was taking material with him to work on translation. U.S. Attorney Michael J. Sullivan declined to comment on the case.

The plea is a setback for the government, which arrested four men in 2003 in separate investigations and charged them with spying, having ties to terrorism or leaking information about the camp. No charges of spying or terrorism remain against any of the four.

Mehalba was arrested at Logan International Airport after returning from Egypt. Customs agents found 132 compact discs in his luggage, including one that contained hundreds of documents labeled “SECRET.” He has been held without bail since.